Question

Why didn't the 14th Amendment succeed in guaranteeing equal rights to African Americans born in the U.S.

Answer 1

T is a good example of the political truth in that what is a belief in the mind of the people is not the same thing as what is stipulated right out in the law. After the Civil War, people in the south were confronted with a new idea; that was that black people were not property. They were people and the men, the ex-slaves, were to be given the vote, and the white women were not. This was a major change that was a time-consuming process. Can you imagine telling someone in the south in 1860 that one day, in 2009, in a 149 years, a black man would actually be elected President of the United States.It would have been incomprehensible. They would never have believed it. So, the idea of equal rights was just too much for them just after the Civil War. A Supreme Court Judge, I believe it was Thurgood Marshall, said something like, "90 years is enough". This meant that the people of the south had been given 90-odd years since the Civil War, to "live", by their actions, that black people were equal. It was just possible now, after 90 years, for the people to progress through a mine-field of mental challenges to truly except this idea. It really couldn't have been done as well in any other time but the 1960's. It could have been forced but it never would have stuck.

Hoped I helped.