On July 28, 1868, Congress adopted the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It was one of the Reconstruction Amendments that were adopted after the Civil War.

After the 13th Amendment ended slavery in the United States, there was still much unrest, especially in the South. In a further attempt to declare all people equal under the law, and curb violence against blacks in the South, Congress passed the 14th Amendment to the Constitution on July 28, 1868.

The 14th Amendment formally defines United States citizenship and protects a person’s civil and political rights from being denied by any individual state. The amendment overruled the decision made in Dred Scott v. Sandford which ruled that black people were not and could not become citizens or have any of the privileges of citizenship. Though the Civil Rights Act of 1866 had already granted citizenship to anyone born in the United States, the framers of the 14th Amendment felt that specifying citizenship regardless of race was important. The amendment granted citizenship to all people who were born or naturalized in the United States, including all freed slaves.

The amendment also had an Equal Protection Clause, requiring states to provide equal protection under the law to all people within their jurisdictions, regardless of race. This clause later became the basis for Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decision which led to the dismantling of racial segregation in the United States.