The Fourteenth Amendment

SECTION 1
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.
SECTION 2
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.
SECTION 3
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.
SECTION 4
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.
SECTION 5
The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the 
provisions of this article.
The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in realization that the Thirteenth Amendment didn’t do enough to establish 
the rights of former slaves. It’s five sections define citizenship rights in the US, apportionment of representatives, 
deny public office to those who aligned allegiance against the US (those who aligned with the Confederacy), 
invalidate Confederate debt by the US, and gave Congress the power to enforce this amendment. This 
amendment was mostly significant in granting former slaves citizenship.

This cartoon demonstrates an instance in which the fourteenth amendment is violated with a member of law enforcement not 
respecting the rights of a colored citizen compared to a white citizen. Under the fourteenth amendment, all citizens were 
guaranteed equal rights, despite their race.



This article explains the historical context of the fourteenth amendment and why it was necessary to protect the rights of newly 
freed slaves. It expands upon its context in the Reconstruction Era and its impact in several Supreme Court cases, such as 
Brown V. Board of Education.

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