Final answer:
The Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment overturned the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision by defining all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. as citizens, thus granting African Americans citizenship and equal protection under the law.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Citizenship Clause and Its Impact on the Dred Scott Decision
The Citizenship Clause was a significant legal development that emerged from the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It was directly aimed at nullifying the effects of the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court decision of 1857. In the Dred Scott case, Chief Justice Roger Taney declared that African Americans could not be citizens of the United States, thus denying them the ability to sue for their freedom, and deemed that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the U.S. territories.
The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, sought to rectify this by affirming that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." This constitutional amendment granted citizenship and equal protection under the law to all people born or naturalized in the U.S., effectively overturning the Dred Scott decision which had stripped African Americans of their rights and status as citizens. The amendment also abolished the three-fifths compromise and addressed the political repercussions for states that denied suffrage.
The Citizenship Clause played a crucial role in redefining American citizenship and providing a legal foundation for civil rights that countered the Dred Scott decision. Its implications were transformative, extending beyond the legal sphere into the social and political fabric of the nation.