often at the expense of the states. I& 1865, thfr 13A Amendment abolished stemy;

this involved the federal government in property rights, which traditionally had been
governed lay state law. ThgBia M^the ISfeAmendment got federal government
involved in defining who may vote: the federal Constitution now prohibited any state
from denying citizens the right to vote based on "race, color or previous condition of

servitude.lr

^
But the most far-reaching amendment was ttle 14th, passed in 1868.   This V

amendment overruled the Dred Scott decision by guaranteeing citizenship to all
persons who are bom or naturalized in the United States. It prohibited the states from       \J ^JIT

A\ 0 ^T
<^-~   I
depriving any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; a state

also could not deny anyone the equal protection of the laws, In teefairicaHegat terms,
these guarantees of "due process" and "equal protection" of the laws have been the
basis of most civil rights matters brought in federal courts.                    ___\

After the 14th amendment was ratified, the Constitution offered a new vision
of how blacks and whites should live together. Still, equal treatment for former slaves
and their descendants was long delayed. For example^ the so-called Jim CBOW laara
throughout the South continued to repress and segregate blacks. The U.S. Supreme
Court, in the 1896 case of Plessy vs. Ferquson. approved a Louisiana law that       ^ °[

2>

J

Right, Human Rights and Civil Ri^te

March 12, 2001                         48