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 Fourteenth Amendment made all native-born men and women citizens and guaranteed them equal protection under the law. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution (1868) granted African Americans the rights of citizenship. It is true that the chief interest of the people in giving permanence and security to citizen- ship in the Fourteenth Amendment was the desire to protect Ne-. The 14th Amendment was the result of local struggles and national debates on the political status of AfricanAmericans in the wake of slavery and the Civil War. Congress overrode President Andrew Johnson's veto and went even further, passing the 14th Amendment. In many states freedmen. (or women) could not be out after dark, carry a knife or gun, or associate with one another. - Students will understand the struggles of African Americans in the "New South" during Reconstruction.