13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments + Military Reconstruction Act

                           Amendments 13-15 are know as the Reconstruction Amendments 

     13th Amendment: Was ratified on the sixth of December, 1865, that declared the continuation of slavery to be illegal, with the exception that it was being used as a punishment for the crimes committed by a guilty party.

     14th Amendment: Was ratified on the ninth of July, 1868, that was considered the most important of all the constitutional amendments gave the federal government responsibility for guaranteeing  equal rights under the law to all Americans. 

•Section 1: Defined national citizenship for the first time as extending to "all [people] born or naturalized in the United States"

•Section 2: Sought to punish the South for denying voting rights to black men by reducing the congressional representation of any state that formally deprived a portion of its male citizens from the ability to vote

•Section 3: Denied federal office to those who had taken an oath of office to support U.S. constitution and then had supported the Confederacy

•Section 4: Repudiated the Confederate debt

—Opposed by Johnson, as he believed it created a "centralized government and denied states the right to manage their own affairs."

     15th Amendment: Was passed by Congress in 1869 and ratified on the third of February, 1870, that prohibited any state from denying a male citizen the right to vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

     African American men line up to vote with their ballots, just like any other white man. Despite the disapproving grimace on his face, the white man in charge of the voting cannot do anything to stop them. *note the black men in line are varying in status: see the first man with a patch on a leg of his pants, the third is a soldier, and so on...