We the People, Redefined
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What historical context led to the creation of the 14th Amendment?
Support for NPR and the following message come from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people, communities, and the planet flourish. More information is available at hewlett.org. This is America in Pursuit, a limited-run series from ThruLine and NPR. I'm Ramtin Arablui. Each week, we bring you stories about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the U.S. that began 250 years ago. Since we started this series, there's one thing that's remained consistent in each episode. the rights to those pursuits were not granted or guaranteed for everyone. And while the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War marked a major turning point for granting some rights to Black Americans, there were still a lot of unanswered questions about what would come next.
What is going to happen to nearly 4 million African Americans who had been enslaved in the South? Are they going to have basic rights? Are they not going to have basic rights? The 14th Amendment sought to put those questions to rest and clarify once and for all who was considered an American and what kind of rights Americans should have. Well, the 14th Amendment is a charter of basic rights.
How did Lincoln's last speech influence the fight for Black rights?
And in trying to give basic rights to African Americans, the 14th Amendment gave basic rights to everybody. But in the aftermath of the Civil War, not everyone was on board with this revision of who had access to what rights. Today on the show, how the 14th Amendment redefined who was American and the story of the people who fought to ratify it. That's coming up after a quick break. Support for NPR and the following message come from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people, communities, and the planet flourish. More information is available at hewlett.org. President Abraham Lincoln delivers his last speech just days after the end of the Civil War in April 1865.
He's standing right outside of the White House. We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. Slavery had been abolished and nearly 4 million former slaves were freed. People were eager to hear what he planned to do next. Lincoln says he'd like to extend some rights to newly freed Black people. I would prefer myself that it were now conferred on the very intelligent and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. He's advocating for, of course, black citizenship and certainly voting rights, at least for those who fought for the union. And there are a lot of former slaves and free blacks who had fought for the union. But the very mention of that idea, black men, just men voting, black citizens, it ruffles feathers, including the feathers of a man in the crowd listening to Lincoln's speech that evening, a man named John Wilkes Booth.
Three days after hearing Lincoln's speech, Booth shoots Lincoln in the head, killing him. Lincoln is really killed for voting rights, for citizenship rights. This is Vernon Burton. I'm the Judge Matthew J. Perry Distinguished Professor of History at Clemson University. I have co-authored a book, Justice Deferred, Race in the Supreme Court. He's going to be one of our guides telling us this story. The other is legal historian Kenneth Mack. Professor at Harvard Law School and also a professor of history at Harvard University. I've written a book called Representing the Race, the Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer. The 14th Amendment is a reaction to what came after Lincoln's assassination. What came after is Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's VP, who gets sworn in as president.
Who was Andrew Johnson and how did he impact post-Civil War policies?
And it's Johnson's job to pick up the presidential baton and put a fractured nation back together. We kind of think of Lee's surrender, the war is over. No, the war continues. After the final battles of the Civil War had ended, the violence continued, especially for Black Americans.
What were the Black Codes and how did they affect African Americans?
For instance, there was the Memphis Riot of 1866. There were clashes between African Americans and police officers in Memphis, Tennessee.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What historical context led to the creation of the 14th Amendment?
0:00–1:24
2
How did Lincoln's last speech influence the fight for Black rights?
1:24–4:31
3
Who was Andrew Johnson and how did he impact post-Civil War policies?
4:31–4:50
4
What were the Black Codes and how did they affect African Americans?
4:50–9:05
5
What was the significance of the Freedmen's Bureau and Civil Rights Act of 1866?
9:05–15:03
6
How did the Radical Republicans push for the 14th Amendment?
15:03–19:42