The Reconstruction Amendments aimed to equalize rights and suffrage for Black Americans.

Evidence

Congress continued to act on behalf of the newly freed. In 1866 it passed the Fourteenth Amendment over President Johnson’s veto; it was ratified in 1868 by the states. In 1869 it passed the Fifteenth Amendment, again over Johnson’s veto; it was ratified by the states in 1870. Together with the Thirteenth Amendment (the trilogy is often referred to as the Reconstruction Amendments), they were designed to free the enslaved, provide them with rights equal to those of white Americans, and give black men the vote. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 260

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Reconstruction amendments abolished slavery and guaranteed equal protection and due process nationally — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 273; Black activists moved from demanding equal segregation to demanding its abolition — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 1012; Black Americans shaped Reconstruction’s egalitarian constitutional changes despite holding no office — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 144 (+8 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Reconstruction amendments abolished slavery and guaranteed equal protection and due process nationally — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 273; Black activists moved from demanding equal segregation to demanding its abolition — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 1012; Black Americans shaped Reconstruction’s egalitarian constitutional changes despite holding no office — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 144 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• The all-white Supreme Court stripped the Reconstruction Amendments of power #complicates (0.85) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 374
• The Supreme Court stripped the Reconstruction Amendments of their force #complicates (0.85)
• The Supreme Court obstructed Fourteenth Amendment rights for black Americans #complicates (0.80) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 381
• Post-slavery systems transformed rather than ended the oppression of black Americans #complicates (0.76) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 430
• Black Americans have had equal legal rights for only about fifty years #complicates (0.75) — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 53