14th Amendment free essay sample

Examines history of civil rights in Constitutional context, major Court rulings (Slaughter House cases, Plessy vs. Ferguson, Brown vs. Board of Education). The Constitution guarantees individual rights and liberties to every American. What most people probably do not know is that, while the Constitution is more than 200 years old, most individual civil rights date back only a little more than 50 years. Not until the 1950s did black Americans win the rights enjoyed by most all other citizens. Most of the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the constitution are included in the Bill of Rights (first 10 amendments to the Constitution). The first 10 amendments were ratified in 1791. However, the Bill of Rights protected citizens against abuses by only the federal government. State governments could decide what limits they would place on free speech, trial by jury, or racial equality. This began to change after the Civil War. In 1865, Congress drafted constitutional amendments that Southern states would have