Overview

The 14th Amendment, passed in 1866, was a transformative addition to the U.S. Constitution.  It says that people deserve equal protection under the laws of this country.

Why the 14th Amendment matters

Passed by the Senate on June 8, 1866, and ratified two years later, on July 9, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States," including formerly enslaved people, and provided all citizens with “equal protection under the laws,” extending the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states. The amendment authorized the government to punish states that abridged citizens’ right to vote by proportionally reducing their representation in Congress. It banned those who “engaged in insurrection” against the United States from holding any civil, military, or elected office without the approval of two-thirds of the House and Senate. Finally, it granted Congress the power to enforce this amendment, a provision that led to the passage of other landmark legislation in the 20th century, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

14th AMendment

FUll Text

  • 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.

  • Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

  • No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

  • The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

  • The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

POetry + the 14th Amendment

Newspapers of the 19th century regularly featured poetry, short stories, and serial novels. New Orleans-based, Black-owned newspapers like La Tribune de la Nouvelle-Orléans (founded in 1864), contributed mightily to the civil rights struggle of the 1860s. Using poetry (as opposed to editorials and other prose) to tackle social injustice and other weighty topics allowed these Creole writers to demonstrate their mastery of language, of aesthetic form and literary codes—and in so doing, prove their intellectual worth to those who doubted it.

During the Harlem Renaissance, legendary Black poet Langston Hughes created poems like ‘I, Too’, addressing 14th Amendment issues of inclusion, equality, and belonging in America.

CULTURE + the 14th Amendment

Recently, actor and cultural icon Will Smith produced a documentary on the 14th Amendment: