Today is Tuesday, July 28, 2020.

On this day in 1868, the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified.

Welcome to today in true Crime, a parcast original. Today we're covering the

ratification of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The 14th

Amendment accomplished many things. Most importantly, it was designed to

grant American citizenship to all people born in the United States, specifically the

former slaves who had been denied equal protection under the law

prior to the Civil War. Let's go back to the Capitol Building on July 28th

1868 in Washington, D.C. as the proposed and passed by the House of Congress.

The first section of the amendment read as follows,

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.

No state shall make or enforce any law which shall

abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor

shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,

nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The amendment was intended to unilaterally recognize the citizenship of all formerly

enslaved people who had been freed three years prior following the Civil War.

Even though slavery had been abolished through the Emancipation Proclamation, many Southern

States refused to recognize former slaves as equal under the law.

They exacted laws on a state level that were intended to suppress and oppress their state's black inhabitants.

These restrictive laws later became known as Black Codes.

The 14th Amendment was meant to override state authority and grant federal protections for the rights of black Americans.

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