Final answer:
Two years after the abolition of slavery, black Americans were granted two groundbreaking rights: citizenship and equal legal protection through the 14th Amendment, and the right to vote for black males through the 15th Amendment. However, actual access to these rights was curtailed for many years to come due to systemic racism and segregation laws.
Step-by-step explanation:
Two years after the end of slavery, black Americans were granted significant new rights through Constitutional amendments. The answer you're looking for is directly tied to the 13th Amendment (which abolished slavery) and the introduction of the 14th Amendment, which defined citizenship and guaranteed equal protection under the law for all people, and the 15th Amendment, which gave black males the right to vote. Despite these amendments, widespread disenfranchisement and the establishment of the Jim Crow laws meant that many African Americans would continue to face substantial obstacles to exercising these rights, particularly in the former Confederate states.
The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, legally abolished slavery in the United States. In 1868, the 14th Amendment was ratified, ensuring that all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves, were American citizens and entitled to equal protection of the laws. The 14th Amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision and laid the civil rights foundation that would be built upon in years to come. Two years later, in 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified, granting black men the legal right to vote. This was designed to prohibit states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
Despite these legal advances, the Jim Crow laws perpetuated racial segregation, and practices such as poll taxes and literacy tests effectively disenfranchised African American voters well into the 20th century. Moreover, notably absent in these advances were the rights of black women, who wouldn't gain the legal right to vote until the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920.