The ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution marked a turning point in the history of United States politics and society. Adopted in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment stated “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”[1] Further, the Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, “prevents the denial of a citizen's vote based on race, color, or ethnicity.”[2] Together, both amendments offered basic European-American rights to the African-Americans, shifting their political, economical and social status forever. Politically, the Amendments forced the discrimination towards African Americans to manifest in the terms of loopholes in the Constitution. The main reasons towards the Amendments as stated in Stacy’s “Fabric of a Nation: A Brief History with Skills and Sources”, the divide between the Federal Rights and States Rights and the rights to bear and own guns caused the Civil war before the Amendments.[3] As Groves pointed out in his article "Separate but Equal—The Doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson" published in 1951, Separate but Equal was a legal doctrine, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[4] Economically, the profit of past slavery continued to trigger the southern states even with the passing of the two Amendments. Stacy’s “Fabric of a Nation: A Brief History with Skills and Sources” suggested the damage done by the Plessy v. Ferguson decision powered by the Supreme Court in 1896 which legalized the racial segregation. Socially, there are establishments of hatred towards African American people, like the Ku Klux Klan. The hate crimes were encountered with the force acts in 1870 and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 in order to protect African American people, mentioned by Stacy in “Fabric of a Nation: A Brief History with Skills and Sources”.

Politically, the race of the Americans does not shift the existence of their political rights and freedom after the ratification. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the Atlantic Slave Trade brought people from Africa to the American colonies, forcing them into a lifetime of bondage and slave labor on cash-crop plantations. Generational slavery stopped the progress of southern society, as one of the fastest ways to create profit, creating a single economically developed market for southern states. In order to keep exploiting the Black people, the southern plantation owners pushed the boundaries of their states rights to enslave more people to receive more profit. As the Northern States developed into a mixed economy due to technology development, the extent of states rights finally cannot fulfill the needs of the southern states. The idea of Federal rights versus States Rights has been a long ongoing debate all can trace back to the founding of the United States.[5] Due to the ratification of the second amendment to the Constitution, people have the right to bear and own guns, especially due to the case and location of the southern states, which created the military power needed to revolt against the government.[6] The extent of States Rights and the right to bear and own guns both led to the start of the American Civil War. Although the United States won the war in 1865, the situation of the black people in southern states did not get better. Due to the power of states rights, the southern state governors created the black codes in 1865 in order to keep the Black people as a workforce, using the power of economic oppression. The ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments in 1868 and 1870 gave the African Americans equal citizenship rights and the men the ability to vote.[7] However, the southern legislators still find the loophole in the system to better oppress the African American population. Separate but Equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[8] In alignment with this political doctrine, the southern states created Jim Crow Laws in 1877, local laws introduced in the Southern United States that enforced racial segregation. The Laws were justified by the Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896, in which the United States Supreme Court decided racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality.[9] The ratifications of Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution did not end racism or changed the systemic racism that remained in the political system to the extent of the present day. However, it did guarantee citizenship rights and voting rights to the people which forced the discrimination to be enforced only in loopholes of the constitution.

Economically, the economical profit of the southern states was the problem that triggered the Civil War and it continued being a problem after the ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Generational slavery stopped the progress of southern society, as one of the fastest ways to create profit, creating a single economically developed market for southern states.[10] Due to the transnational Industrial Revolution that transmitted into the United States in 1760, the transition to new manufacturing processes created the mixed economy in the Northern States, allowing them to move from slavery to Capitalism, an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit.[11] Before the Amendments, the creation of Black Codes in 1865 caused the plantation owners to further oppress the former enslaved people using the power of money. Although the passing of Amendments stopped the existence of Black Code in southern states, the racism did not stop. With the Plessy v. Ferguson decision powered by the Supreme Court in 1896, the racial segregation was legalized. Therefore, the separation of the races created wage and work ethics problems, letting the Caucasian people better discriminate against the African Americans in Economics.[12]

Socially, the racism did not stop by the ratifications of the Amendments, the segregation empowered by the legislative system brought further gaps in between African Americans and White Americans. Ku Klux Klan, founded in Indiana in 1865, was an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are the colored people.[13] The hatred and hate crimes were encountered with the force acts in 1870 and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 in order to protect African American people. Although the racism did not stop, the existing situation drew more attention towards the civil rights of the African American people, not only the legislative rights, which later influenced the Civil Rights Movements starting in 1954.

[1] United States Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment: Equal Protection and Other Rights.
[2] United States Constitution, Fifteenth Amendment: Voting Rights.
[3] Stacy, Jason, Matthew J. Ellington, and Nancy A. Hewitt. Fabric of a Nation: A Brief History with Skills and Sources, for the AP U.S. History Course. Boston: Bedford, Freeman & Worth, 2020.
[4] Groves, Harry E. (1951). "Separate but Equal—The Doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson". Phylon. 12 (1): 66–72. doi:10.2307/272323. JSTOR 272323.
[5] Stacy, Jason, Matthew J. Ellington, and Nancy A. Hewitt. Fabric of a Nation: A Brief History with Skills and Sources, for the AP U.S. History Course. Boston: Bedford, Freeman & Worth, 2020.
[6] United States Constitution, Second Amendment: right to keep and bear arms
[7] United States Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment: Equal Protection and Other Rights.

 United States Constitution, Fifteenth Amendment: Voting Rights.
[8] "Separate but Equal – Separate Is Not Equal". Americanhistory.si.edu.

americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/separate-but-equal.html
[9]  Groves, Harry E. (1951). "Separate but Equal—The Doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson". Phylon. 12 (1): 66–72. doi:10.2307/272323. JSTOR 272323.
[10]  Stacy, Jason, Matthew J. Ellington, and Nancy A. Hewitt. Fabric of a Nation: A Brief History with Skills and Sources, for the AP U.S. History Course. Boston: Bedford, Freeman & Worth, 2020.
[11] Zimbalist, Sherman and Brown, Andrew, Howard J. and Stuart (October 1988). Comparing Economic Systems: A Political-Economic Approach. Harcourt College Pub. pp. 6–7. ISBN 978-0-15-512403-5.
[12] Stacy, Jason, Matthew J. Ellington, and Nancy A. Hewitt. Fabric of a Nation: A Brief History with Skills and Sources, for the AP U.S. History Course. Boston: Bedford, Freeman & Worth, 2020.
[13] Stacy, Jason, Matthew J. Ellington, and Nancy A. Hewitt. Fabric of a Nation: A Brief History with Skills and Sources, for the AP U.S. History Course. Boston: Bedford, Freeman & Worth, 2020.