Citizens Have Rights Too!
By Tristan "Shaggy" Wyatt
14th Amendment
It stated that all persons born or naturalized in the United States - including African Americans - are citizens of the country.
The Fourteenth Amendment is Born
The first section of the amendment asserted four basic principles. It reaffirmed state and federal citizenship for persons born or naturalized in the U.S., and it forbade any state from depriving a person of 'life, liberty, or prosperity' or denying any person the equal protection of the laws.
Lincoln's Assassination
Lincoln was shot and killed by Confederate zealot John Wilkes Booth. Also targeted that night were Secretary of State William Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson. Seward survived a brutal stabbing, and Johnson escaped unharmed after his would-be attacker got cold feet and ended up drunk in the hotel bar. The assassination catapulted Johnson into the presidency and into direct conflict with the Radical Republican members of Congress, who disliked him and Lincoln's mild approach to Reconstruction.