Is the 14th Amendment central to understanding the legacy of the Civil War and Reconstruction?

Pat Young

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Is Section 1 of the 14th Amendment central to understanding the legacy of the Civil War and Reconstruction? Historian David Blight writes that:

Among all the enactments of Reconstruction, none embody the lasting significance, or the heart of the conflict in this revolution and counter-revolution better than section one of the Fourteenth Amendment. It ought to be embraced as a holy writ that binds our national community, that fortifies even the very idea of America born of this second founding. Based, in part, on language proposed by John Bingham of Ohio, an evangelical Christian and former abolitionist, it reads:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the states 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 without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
What do you think?
 
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