15th Amendment to the Constitution
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that 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....
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention
The Founding Fathers: Virginia
http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/char...

"Boss Tweed" and the Tammany Hall Machine
There is little question that the Tweed Ring were outright thieves and that Tammany Hall did have a series of reoccurring scandals. An estimated 75 to 200 million dollars were swindled from the City between 1865 and 1871.
http://www.albany.edu/~dkw42/tweed.html

"Jim Crow" Laws
From the 1880s into the 1960s, a majority of American states enforced segregation through "Jim Crow" laws (so called after a black character in minstrel shows).
http://www.nps.gov/archive/malu/documents/jim_crow_laws.htm

13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States." Formally abolishing slavery in the United States, the 13th Amendment was passed by the Congress on January 31, 1865...
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/13thamendment.html

13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
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. 1865
http://www.nps.gov/malu/documents/amend13.htm

13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Thirteenth Amendment--Slavery and Involuntary Servitude
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/html/amdt13.html

14th AMENDMENT
Section 1. 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 ...
http://www.nps.gov/malu/documents/amend14.htm

14th Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment - Rights Guaranteed Privileges and Immunities of Citizenship, Due Process and Equal Protection
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment14/

14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States forbids the states to deny any citizen the rights granted by federal law. It also defines how citizenship is acquired and declares that all citizens are entitled to equal protection of the law...
http://www.worldbook.com/wc/popup?path=features/aajourney...