14th Amendment Advantages

The fourteenth amendment impacted civil liberties in the United States from the time of its passage at the end of the Civil War to the time of the Civil Rights Act being enacted. The fourteenth amendment added in 1789, basically claims that anyone born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States, including former slaves. Some case studies that prove how civil liberties in the United States were affected are Dred Scott v. Sandford, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Brown v. Board of Education. Although we still face challenges today, the fourteenth amendment has proved to be an advancement to our society because it affected civil liberties in the United States due to specific case studies, the Civil Rights Act and the many obstacles

The Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination towards people’s race, sex, religion, color, or national origin. This act didn’t just help African-Americans, it also benefited women, latinos, and whites. It created an equal employment opportunity to all citizens of the U.S. and additionally excluded discrimination in the workplace. Segregation was also put to an end due to this Act being passed. The Civil Rights Act was caused by many things including the Brown v Board of Education case, Rosa Parks arrest, Little Rock school desegregation, and the march on Washington. In 1955, Rosa Parks nonviolently protested by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger and was then arrested, this then led to bus boycotts to try to end segregation in buses. Interestingly enough, segregated buses were a violation of the 14th amendment. Another event that led up to the Civil Rights Act was the Little Rock school desegregation in 1957. A group of African-American students decided to integrate Central High School in Arkansas, they were faced with a white mob and the governor did not agree with these actions. The students still found a way in but left shortly after. The action of Little Rock segregating students was also a violation of the 14th amendment. The Civil Rights March in Washington was an event led by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 that was a peaceful protest

Racial discrimination is still a concept seen in the modern day. Racial discrimination is the unequal treatment towards a group based off of their race, color, or ethnicity. “A 2001 survey, for example, found that more than one-third of blacks and nearly 20% of Hispanics and Asians reported that they had personally been passed over for a job or promotion because of their race or ethnicity (Schiller 2004),” writes Devah Pager and Hana Shepherd in their article The Sociology of Discrimination. This proves that racial discrimination is still present during the process of employment. Citizens not only experience discrimination in the work field, they also experience it at school, stores, movies, theaters, or while seeking health care. Recently, the biggest outrage of discrimination has been by police brutality towards innocent black or minority citizens. According to the Washington Post, 908 people have been assaulted, shot, and brutally murdered by police in 2016, most of which are native American, black, or Hispanic. The 14th amendment’s purpose is meant to protect all citizens of the United States, disregarding race, but why has no justice been served to the deaths of these innocent