Answer:
Requires that states uphold the principle of equality before the law
Step-by-step explanation:
The Fourteenth Amendment was added to the constitution in 1868 in response to the Union victory during the civil war.
Additional Rights
The Fourteenth amendment created new rights that protected citizens, especially freed black people.
The amendment's main points included:
- All people born in the US were granted citizenship
- People had equal protection under the law
- The federal government can punish states that infringe on people's right to vote.
All of these rights were federally protected, so the states did not have the right to change any of these points.
Importance
Even after the civil war and the emancipation of all slaves (13th amendment), freed slaves and anyone with black skin were treated poorly by white people, especially in the south. Individual states attempted to remove the rights of black people since slavery was no longer legal. So, this amendment gave black people citizenship that would forever give them "equal protection" before the law. However, this equality only really existed on paper; in practice, black people were still treated poorly by police officers and juries.
While this amendment did help in some ways, it is still important to remember that black people were not seen as completely equal. Black men might have had equal right to vote, but Jim Crow laws worked to circumvent this and other protections. It would be many years before black people would actually be seen as citizens to many people.