Civil Rights and Us Constitution

Civil rights are the rights given to the citizens of a country by their government. They are the privileges of personal power given to all citizens by law. Some example of civil rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of assembly, the right to vote, freedom of involuntary servitude, and the right to equality in public places.

In the original US constitution these civil rights were included in the form of “Bill of Rights”. Bill of Rights is a list of rights that belong to the people. The government is not allowed to break these rights. Some of these rights are: the right of free speech; the right to practice your own religion; the right to be silent if you are arrested. The original Constitution had no bill of rights. Many of the Framers did not think it was needed. But many people wanted one. So, promises were made to add one. Once the new government was running, the bill of rights was added. In 1791, ten of those changes were agreed to by the states. The ten changes were added to the Constitution.

In 1787, most of the black people in America were slaves. Most people in the north thought that slavery was bad and wanted to end it. On the other hand Slavery was important in the South because lot people in the south made money through slaves. They picked their crops, like cotton and tobacco. When President Lincoln was elected south was very upset because President Lincoln did not like slavery. So, most of the Southern states decided to break away from United States and created their own country called the Confederate States of America. USA did not like the idea of southern states to break away and created their own country so the civil war begun. USA won that war but lot of people died and the buildings were destroyed. In spite of all that, something good happened; slavery ended with the 13th Amendment, slavery was made illegal.

Even though the 13th Amendment was added to the constitution, it did not abolish the slavery completely. In 1866 Civil Rights Act gave Blacks citizenship. It gave black the same rights and benefits. Congress passed the 14th Amendment protecting civil rights of blacks in1868. The 14th Amendment states that every person born in the United States was a full citizen. Even former slaves were full citizens. The 15th Amendment made sure that black people could vote.

For a long time, most of the people who shaped the country were men. Women had no role in the government or politics. They were the homemakers who took care of the kids, fathers and husbands. Most men were not in the favor of that women should vote. Also there was a law stated that women can not vote so lot of men fought against it. Finally, in 1920, the 19th Amendment was passed which stated that women can vote in all elections.

In 1964 Civil Rights Act passed prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations and employment based on race, sex, national