Fourteenth Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship and equal protection

The Fourteenth Amendment is certified on July 28, 1868, after ratification by the states. The amendment makes people born or naturalized in the United States citizens and bars states from denying due process or equal protection of the laws.\n\nThe amendment is designed in large part to secure the freedom and citizenship of formerly enslaved people against hostile state governments. It becomes the constitutional foundation for many later civil rights cases.\n\nThe event is central to the racism timeline because it creates the equal protection rule used to challenge racial discrimination in schools, voting, marriage, policing, and many other areas.