History of the United States II / Unit 1 USH2 0012 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Fourteenth Amendment
Captions available
The idea
Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment on June thirteenth, eighteen sixty-six, to write citizenship into the Constitution itself.
In practice
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
Where people slip
Section one also forbids any state to deny any person the equal protection of the laws. Ratification came on July ninth, eighteen sixty-eight.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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