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Cardozo Law Review

Abstract

One of the most important outcomes of the Civil War was the establishment of a new constitutional order. Under this new order, African Americans, a people whose essential human rights had been denied under the old constitutional order, were constitutionally emancipated from slavery and recognized as American citizens. They received the privileges and immunities that white Americans had automatically assumed. Male black Americans also received the right to vote. This new order, as embraced by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, was a truly remarkable achievement of Reconstruction. What is additionally significant is that these Amendments became law within five years after the war, and not only have they endured, but they have also profoundly shaped the course of American history. Of the three amendments, the Fifteenth Amendment was the most revolutionary product of Reconstruction politics. By conferring on black Americans the right to vote, an essential right enabling a citizen to be politically accountable in a democracy, the amendment redefined the meaning of American freedom and democracy. When millions of former slaves were declared equal voters, the course of American democracy took a radically different direction from the one once perceived by the framers of the original Constitution.

Keywords

Civil Rights, Voting, Constitutional Law, Elections and Voting Law, Fourteenth Amendment, Legal History, Thirteenth Amendment, Human Rights Law

Disciplines

Civil Rights and Discrimination | Constitutional Law | Election Law | Fourteenth Amendment | Human Rights Law | Law | Law and Race | Legal History

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