Transcript The 14 th Amendment

North and South
In the year 1870 there were 7,2 million people in the USA. For 1,2
million of these people the words of the Declaration of
Independence “that all men are created equal” were far from true.
They were black and they were slaves.
North and South
In the North of the
United States farms were
smaller and the climate
was cooler than in the
South. Northern Farmers
did not need slaves to
work for them. Some o
opposed slavery for
moral and religious
reasons also.
By the 1820s southern
and northern politicians
were arguing fiercely.
Abraham Lincoln 16th
President of the United
States
On march 4, 1861,
Abraham Lincoln took
the oath of office as
President of the United
States. In His inaugural
address he appealed to
the Southern states to
stay in the Union and
warned that he would
not allow them to
break up the United
States.
The Southern States
Took no notice on the
appeal and on April 12
the American Civil War
began.
The Civil
War
The Civil War gave
the final answers to
two questions. It put
an end to slavery. In
1865 this was
abolished everywhere
in the US by the 13th
Amendment to the
Constitution. And it
decided finally that
the United States was
one nation, whose
parts could not be
separated.
The 14th
Amendment
But white southerners were
determined to resist any changes that
threatened their power to control the
life of the south. They were especially
horrified at the idea of giving equal
rights to their former black slaves.
In July 1866, despite opposition from
the President, Congress passed a Civil
Rights Act. And then it introduced the
14th amendment to the Constitution.
The 14th amendment gave blacks full
rights, including the right to vote.
The Ku
Klux
Klan
All the former Confederate states except
Tennessee refused to accept the 14th
Amendment. The largest and the most
feared terrorist group was a secret
society called the Ku Klux Klan. They
rode by night through the countryside,
beating and killing any blacks who tried
to improve their position. Their sign was
a burning wooden cross, which they
placed outside the homes of their
intended victims
Reconstruction
But reconstruction had not
been for nothing. The 14th
Amendment was especially
important. It was the
foundation of the Civil Rights
movement of the 1950s and
1960s and made it possible
for Martin Luther King to cry
out eventually on behalf of all
black Americans: “Free at last!
Free at last! Thank God
Almighty, we are free at last!”
Famous People in
America
Nowadays
Michael Jordan
Barack
Obama
Condoleezza Rice
In 2008, Democratic
Sen. Barack Obama
defeated Republican
Sen. John McCain
becoming the first
African-American
elected to the office of
President of the
United States, and
making Barack
Obama, Michelle
Obama, and
daughters Malia and
Sasha the first African
American First Family
of the United States.
Ninety-five percent of
African American
voters voted for
Obama.