On July 28, 1868, the 14th Amendment officially became part of the US Constitution. The 14th amendment is best known for iterating that African-Americans were officially citizens, but it’s language about citizenship is actually quite broad. It also stipulates that people have the right to due process. From section one:
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.
While we know women were not part of the political process at the time (except behind the scenes perhaps) the amendment is an extremely important part of history in terms of racial equity, something that affected everyone regardless of gender. It’s interesting to note that while it took almost 60 years for the 19th amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, to pass, the language of the 14th amendment is gender inclusive at it’s face.
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Of course. But the debate which always rages is whether we should interpret it to the letter of the law or the spirit of the law.
Technically, a lot of black men weren’t able to vote even after the 14th Amendment was passed…. the Jim Crow laws, for instance.
Thanks for the anniversary heads-up! For all the shortcomings in its implementation, the 14th amendment is a tremendous thing.
(May I be a bit picky, though, and note that two uses of “it’s” should be “its”?)
It really must be mentioned that some women’s rights leaders (“suffragettes”) at the time (including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton) initially opposed the 14th amendment because it was the first time that the word “male” was ratified into the constitution. They also felt that black males were getting “their day” before white women were and were upset by this (especially since they felt that the Civil War victory was already a victory for blacks, so it was their “turn.”) For a quick summary of this controversy, click here: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/laws/a/equal_protect.htm. Anyone else know any better sources on the topic?
I agree, thanks for reminding us of this anniversary! This amendment was important, as was the struggle that was waged to get it passed. However, it did put the word “male” into the constitution for the first time, codifying and legalizing discrimination against women of all colors. This made things difficult for all women campaigning for equality.
As Sojourner Truth said about the fourteenth amendment, “There is a great deal of stir about colored men getting their rights but not a word about the colored women’s theirs, you see, the colored man will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before.”
Like tpaperny, I’m really surprised at the above post showing a real lack of historical knowledge about feminists and other women activists of the time’s relationship to the 14th amendment. It’s a really interesting example of the cross currents of race and gender justice, and how sometimes they worked against each other or it was very complicated. The suffragettes did actively oppose this amendment, as tpaperny describes, on the basis of it being a serious step back for women’s right to vote. This was a pretty big rift at the time for women’s activism – an enormous amount of women had become involved in public and civic advocacy as the 19th century progressed through religion means and then abolition and then temperance and the ‘do everything’ motto of the Temperance Society’s leader, who was such an awesome woman though I can’t remember her name right now…will look up shortly…anyway, it split a lot of these groups about what to do, with the suffragettes emerging as a more distinct body from the temperance/abolition movement because of this opposition to the 14th amendment, while many women who had been working under a loose abolition banner for years supporting the 14th amendment.
Fast forward to the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote – the racial politics then were really ‘interesting’, which is to say very much there and happening, as suffragettes in the South’s primary argument for giving (white) women the right to vote is that it would cancel out/overwhelm the black male vote. Yeah.