It wasn't easy to pass the Fourteenth Amendment. Even the President was against it.

Even free African Americans living in the North in the nineteenth century were not treated as full citizens.

The due process and equal protection clauses are considered by many scholars to be the most important clauses in the Constitution. Find out why on today's podcast.

After the Civil War, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment. These were efforts to protect the rights of African Americans.

The Fifteenth Amendment expanded the right to vote to ensure that African Americans could exercise this right.

Talks about the beginnings of the civil rights movement after the government did not provide the protection that was promised to African Americans in the Fourteenth Amendment.

The ideal of equality was stated in the Declaration of Independence. Abolitionists and African Americans used this as an argument against segregation.

Today we learn how some northern states granted increasing rights to African Americans. In the South, the situation was quite different.

What were the Black Codes? Find out on today's podcast.

When Union troops left the South, a reign of terror began. And Congress could not stop it.

After the Civil War, Republicans had both moral and political reasons to support the civil rights of African Americans.

After the Civil War, Republicans had both moral and political reasons to support the civil rights of African Americans. This led to the Fourteenth Amendment.