13th Amendment History

Slavery ended in the year 1964 by Abraham Lincoln passing the 13th amendment. The 13th amendment was passed on January 31, 1864, and was officially ratified by the end of the year on December 6th. About three years later the 14th amendment was passed on July 9, 1868. This amendment gave all citizens born in the United States the rights of life, liberty and property. The 15th amendment was passed on February 3, 1870, stating that any black male wanting to vote would not denied the rights All of these amendments were huge to the African Americans. They may not have been slaves anymore but that was not near the end of their discrimination.

Just two years after the 13th amendment, the whites were already raging about them making the amendments.

In 1883 the Supreme Court announced that congress had no power over private discriminations. “When a man has emerged from slavery, and by the aid of beneficent legislation… There must be some stage in the process of his elevation when takes the rank of a mere citizen or, a man, ceases to be the special favorite of the laws, and when his rights as a citizen, or a man, are to be protected in the ordinary models by which other men’s rights are protected”. In the 1900’s the legislators made segregation extremely serious. In 1914 Louisiana required separate entrances for black and whites. Then in 1915 Oklahoma made it where the telephone booths were segregated. In 1920 Mississippi made this a crime “Arguments or suggestions in favor of social equalities or of interracial between whites and Negro’s”. The Jim Crow Laws was a system of laws and regulations focusing on the racial segregation of the blacks and the whites in the United States. The Law did not necessarily say anything about race, but it was written to discriminate African Americans. The Jim Crow Laws started after the Radical Reconstruction in 1877. The African Americans did enjoy their rights of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, because they could actually dine in and ride subways the same as the whites. Yet all of this is true, they were still treated unequally. In 1896 the

The kids we now call the Little Rock Nine, were unfortunately turned down by the Arkansas National Guard because of their color. One of the nine, Elizabeth Eckford, arrived opposite block by herself and a big group of people met up with her and started yelling threatening things at her including, “two, four, six, eight, we ain’t gonna integrate!” The next time that the nine tried to enter the school there ended up being a riot so police showed up and escorted them to safety. They each had their own personal bodyguard to walk them to each class and keep them safe. Only one of the Little Rock Nine, Minnijean Brown, was sent away because of expulsion. She called someone “white trash” for hitting her with their purse. The rest of the nine including Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed Wair, Melbo Pattillo Beals, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, and Gloria Ray Karlmark all graduated from Little Rock Central High