Some Other Amendments

Civil War Amendments

Protecting All Americans? At first, the Bill of Rights applied only to adult white males. It also applied only to the national government, not to state or local governments.

Later amendments and court rulings made the Bill of Rights apply to all people and all levels of government. The Civil War amendments–the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth–extended civil liberties to African Americans.

Amendment 13 The 13th Amendment outlawed slavery, freeing thousands of African Americans. After the Civil War, many Southern states passed “black codes” that limited the rights of African Americans.

Amendment 14 Originally meant to protect the rights of freed slaves It defined citizens as anyone born or naturalized in the United States, which included African Americans. Now protects all citizens’ life, liberty or property without due process All have equal protection under the law

Amendment 15 The 15th Amendment says that no state may take away a person’s voting rights on the basis of race, color, or previous enslavement. It was intended to guarantee the right to vote to African Americans men. Poll taxes, literacy tests, etc. worked against

Voting Amendments

Amendment 19 The Constitution did not grant or deny women the right to vote so states made their own decisions. (Most states didn’t give females this right.) The Nineteenth Amendment solved this problem by federally establishing women’s right to vote in all elections. The Constitution now says ‘the right to vote cannot be denied because of gender’ Also called ‘Women’s Suffrage’

Amendment 24 The 13th-15th Amendments were not well received by former slave states. Several Southern states required people to pay poll taxes to vote. Because many African Americans and poor whites could not afford to pay, they could not vote. The Twenty-fourth Amendment outlawed poll taxes.

Amendment 26 The Twenty-sixth Amendment guaranteed the right to vote to citizens 18 and older. Before this amendment, most states set the minimum voting age at 21. Why the change? During the Vietnam war 18 year olds drafted into military service, to fight and die for their country, but not old enough to vote. Americans believed this to be unfair.