Law Library Display Celebrates the Ratification of the 14th Amendment

On July 28, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment was certified as ratified by the states.  The Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” including  former slaves.  It also prohibits states from denying any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” As such, the Fourteenth Amendment was critical to the expansion and development of civil rights in the United States. 

This important historical event is highlighted in one of the Law Library's current displays.  The display features information about the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment from the Library of Congress, as well as several titles which offer background and history on the ratification process, including No Easy Walk To Freedom: Reconstruction and the Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, by James E. Bond.

Two important Supreme Court cases arising out of the Fourteenth Amendment were Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, which addressed the constitutionality of racial segregation.  The Law Library's display also features titles regarding these important cases, including: The Plessy Case: A Legal-Historical Interpretation, by Charles A. Lofgren, Defining Moments: Brown v. Board of Education, by Diane Telgen, and With All Deliberate Speed: Implementing Brown v. Board of Education, edited by Brian J. Daugherity and Charles C. Bolton.

Other titles included in the display are: Government By Judiciary: The Transformation of the Fourteenth Amendment, by Raoul Berger, No State Shall Abridge: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Bill of Rights, by Michael Kent Curtis, and The Fourteenth Amendment and the Bill of Rights, by Raoul Berger.