SPOTLIGHT ON AMERICA: Today in 1868 the 14th Amendment was Ratified
On July 28, 1868, the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. The amendment grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" which included former slaves who had just been freed after the Civil War. The amendment had been rejected by most Southern states but was ratified by the required three-fourths of the states. Known as the "Reconstruction Amendment," it forbids any state to deny any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."Information above is from America's Story from America's Library. http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/recon/jb_recon_revised_1.html
Photo: Survival while black in America depends in part on the successful retention of a curricula of traveling-based truths, writes Damon Young. BRANDONJ74—Getty Images