Under the 14th Amendment, African Americans could now legally claim the same constitutional rights afforded to all American citizens. The 14th Amendment was necessary to make clear that Black people, as well as anyone born in the country or naturalized, were American citizens.The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution provides that, with few discrete exceptions, people born in the United States are citizens of this country. It included provisions to protect men's right to vote while abridging the rights of former Confederates. NAACP celebrates, commemorates and defends the Fourteenth amendment, including all of its provisions for birthright citizenship and equality before the law. Southerners defended these laws as honest attempts to restore order in the South. One of the first reactions against Reconstruction was to deprive AfricanAmerican men of their voting rights. The 13th Amendment formally abolished slavery. The 14th Amendment established African Americans as equal citizens of the United States. It included provisions to protect men's right to vote while abridging the rights of former Confederates.