Final answer:
The Fourteenth Amendment was part of a series of laws that ensured the civil rights of African Americans by granting them citizenship and equal protection under the law.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Fourteenth Amendment was part of a series of laws that ensured the civil rights of African Americans. This amendment, one of the three Reconstruction Amendments ratified after the Civil War, was aimed at addressing the civil liberties of formerly enslaved people. Adopted on July 9, 1868, the amendment granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and ensured that they receive equal protection under the law, thereby repealing the Dred Scott decision that denied citizenship to African Americans. It also mandated that no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.