Constitution

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The Constitution established national government and fundamental laws and guaranteed certain basic rights. The Constitution sets out three distinct branches of the federal government that checks the power of each other. These branches are the Judicial Branch, The Supreme Court, the Executive Branch, the President, and the Legislative Branch, Congress. The 38 people who signed the Constitution were delegates from the original US states. The Constitution was ratified on June 21st, 1788. As of now, there are 27 Amendments. On this website, we’re only going to discuss a couple of them.

Amendment XIII

The Thirteenth freed all slaves at the end of the Civil War and made any form of slavery, EXCEPT for punishment for crimes (ex.prison labor), illegal.

Juneteenth

Juneteenth, (short for June nineteenth) commemorates the day in 1865 when the Emancipation Proclamation was read to enslaved African Americans in Texas and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. The Emancipation Proclamation became official on January 1st, 1863, but it was two and a half years later, June 19th, 1865, that Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas with the news that the enslaved people were free/

Prison Labor

The 13th amendment created a loophole to not fully get rid of slavery. The only exception for slavery is as a punishment for crime. The Prison Industries Act provides for the employment of inmate labor in state correctional institutions. Companies can use privatized prison manufacturing without paying for labor in full. The purpose of the act is to reduce manufacturing costs for companies that use prison labor as well as reduce state prison costs.

Watch "The 13th" on Netflix to learn more about the loophole in the 13th Amendment!

Amendment XIV

The Fourteenth states that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens. It also guarantees due process and equal treatment under the law.

Amendment XIX

The Nineteenth guarantees women the right to vote. Some women already had the right to vote in western states in the early 1900s.

Amendment XXIV

The Twenty-Fourth made it illegal to have to pay a tax to vote in federal elections.

Amendment XXVI

The Twenty-Sixth lowered the voting age to 18.

Click here to see the Constitution that was originally written!

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