The Reconstruction Amendments

The Reconstruction Amendments

​Before the Civil War, most African American people in the South were enslaved and had no legal rights. The Civil War ended slavery, but African Americans still faced many challenges in the South. They did not have citizenship, freedom from discrimination, or the right to vote.

In the decade after the war, a time known as Reconstruction, the federal government tried to make changes in the South. The South had just tried to leave the U.S. during the Civil War. So, Reconstruction was meant to bring those states back into the U.S. and protect the rights of African American people.

However, Southern states resisted these efforts by passing laws called Black Codes. These laws discriminated against African American people by denying them their right to vote, use public services like schools and post offices, meet in groups, or do any work except farming or being a servant. Many African American people were even forced to go back to labor for their former enslavers.

The Radical Republicans, a group of congressmen from the North, wanted to stop the Black Codes. They needed a way to prevent state laws from discriminating against African American people. So, they passed the Reconstruction Amendments, three changes to the U.S. Constitution to prevent discrimination. Because the Constitution governs the entire country, Radical Republicans hoped this could force all states to respect equal rights.

PHOTO BY JACK DELANO, (loc.gov)
​After slavery was abolished in the United States, white citizens in former Confederate states created Jim Crow laws to reinforce the oppression of black people.

Multiple Select

What were the two main goals of Reconstruction?

• Repair the infrastructure of the South.

• Protect the rights of Black Americans.

• Bring the seceded states back into the Union.

• Punish people who participated in the Confederacy.

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To prevent discrimination in the South, the Radical Republicans passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. These are known as the Reconstruction Amendments. Read this selection from the 13th Amendment.

​The 13th Amendment

​Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime . . . shall exist within the United States.”


Involuntary servitude: Forced to serve and obey someone

Multiple Choice

What did the 13th Amendment make illegal?

• Discrimination

• Slavery

• Inequality

• Secession

Multiple Select

Although the 13th Amendment provided some rights, it did not guarantee equal citizenship.

Which of the following forms of discrimination did the 13th Amendment not cover?

Select all that apply.

• Preventing African American people from voting.

• Requiring African American people to work without being paid.

• Banning African American children from attending school.

• Restricting African American people from attending public meetings.

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The 14th Amendment went further, preventing other forms of discrimination.

​The 14th Amendment

All persons born or naturalized in the United States . . . are citizens of the United States . . . . No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges . . . of citizens of the United States . . . nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.


Abridge - To take away.
Jurisdiction - Territory.

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The 15th Amendment extended voting rights for Black men.

​The 15th Amendment

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.


Abridged - Taken away.
Previous condition of servitude - Having been enslaved.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following forms of discrimination was the 15th Amendment designed to prevent?

• Buying people as property.

• Banning African American people from schools.

• Preventing formerly enslaved men from voting.

• Preventing marriages between white and African American people.

Match

Match the constitutional violation with the amendment that protects against it.

• Many towns did not allow Black Americans to rent or own homes there.

• State laws often prevented non-white men from voting if their

  grandfathers were enslaved.

• State laws forced people to work for landowners without pay if they violated vagrancy laws.

14th Amendment

15th Amendment

13th Amendment

• 14th Amendment

• 15th Amendment

• 13th Amendment