Dominic Sandbrook

Yeah.

So we've moved on a few months now.

Sort of, we were in 1866, moving towards 1868.

And that is from, you said it was from Virginia, Tom.

So we've moved outside Tennessee.

The Ku Klux virus, as some papers called it, has spread beyond the borders of its original state.

And as that article shows, actually, it is much more overtly racist and violent even now than it was 18 months or so ago.

Now, a lot of this is down to the fact the context is changing all the time.

So I mentioned in the first episode, in 1866 and 1867, there was a power struggle in Washington between President Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's successor from Tennessee, and the so-called radical Republicans in Congress.

And Congress won it.

So first of all, Congress secured the passage of the 14th Amendment.

So the 14th Amendment extends American citizenship to anybody born in the United States, including former slaves.

They are now American citizens.

The 14th Amendment mandates...

That no state can deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law.

That due process of law.

I mean, so much constitutional argument in the last kind of century and a half has come down to those words and what you can and cannot do to somebody.

That's the problem with the written constitution, isn't it?

Bonkers.

I don't agree with that any more than you do.