1857	MARCH 6 The Dred Scott decision saw the U.S. Supreme Court place America firmly on the wrong side of history. This ruling denied citizenship and constitutional rights to all black people, legally establishing the race as “subordinate, inferior beings -- ” whether slave or freedmen. “The Civil War erupts in 1861.
1863	JANUARY 1 Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln frees slaves in Confederacy.
1865	DECEMBER 6  (Ratified) Although the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery with the pronouncement that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Southern states find a loophole, reviving slavery era codes and creating unattainable prerequisites for blacks to live, work or participate in society. The following year, the First Civil Rights Act invalidates these Black Codes, conferring the “rights of citizenship” on all black people.
1868	JULY 9 (Ratified) Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution grants due process and equal protection under the law to Blacks stating “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.”
1870	FEBRUARY 3 ( Ratified) The Fifteenth Amendment grants the right to vote to Blacks – including former slaves, establishing: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”