News & Updates
CFR Communications Team
As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, I believe this is the perfect opportunity to revisit one of the most important chapters in our nation’s history: Reconstruction.
When we discuss birthright citizenship and the Fourteenth Amendment, we cannot skip the history that gave birth to both. That history begins with the Freedmen.
As a descendant of formerly enslaved Americans, I believe understanding that history is essential. I do not identify my family’s history through the broader African diaspora. My family’s story is rooted in the history of the United States and in the generations who lived through slavery, emancipation, Reconstruction, segregation, and the ongoing pursuit of equal citizenship.
That history belongs to us.
One of the reasons I aligned myself with the Republican Party is because of what I learned while studying Reconstruction.
Many Americans are never taught that the Republican Party of the Reconstruction era led the effort to pass the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery; the Civil Rights Act of 1866; and the Fourteenth Amendment, which secured citizenship after slavery.
Learning that history changed the way I viewed American politics.
For me, it wasn’t about today’s political labels. It was about understanding where constitutional protections came from and deciding which political tradition I wanted to help shape going forward.
The Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868, immediately following the Civil War.
One of its central purposes was to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), which had declared that Black people could not be citizens of the United States.
Congress responded by permanently securing citizenship for formerly enslaved Americans and ensuring that citizenship could never again be denied simply because of race or ancestry.
That is the historical foundation of the Citizenship Clause.
Freedmen were Black Americans who had been enslaved before the Civil War and were emancipated following the abolition of slavery in 1865.
Following emancipation:
The term matters because it explains why the Fourteenth Amendment exists.
Congress sought to guarantee that formerly enslaved Americans would never again be denied citizenship under American law.
Reconstruction was one of the most significant periods in American history.
The nation abolished slavery.
It established birthright citizenship.
It guaranteed equal protection under the law.
It expanded voting rights through the Fifteenth Amendment.
Those constitutional changes permanently reshaped the United States.
More than 150 years later, birthright citizenship once again became the subject of national debate.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order seeking to limit automatic birthright citizenship for certain children born in the United States to parents who were unlawfully present or present on temporary visas.
Multiple lawsuits challenged the order, arguing that it conflicted with the Fourteenth Amendment.
The resulting litigation once again focused national attention on the Citizenship Clause and its meaning.
The legal debate centered not only on immigration policy but also on constitutional interpretation.
One approach focuses on the original public meaning of the Constitution as understood during Reconstruction.
Another approach views the Fourteenth Amendment as establishing broader constitutional protections that have evolved through more than a century of Supreme Court precedent.
Both perspectives begin with Reconstruction.
They differ on how the Citizenship Clause should be interpreted today.
One aspect of the constitutional debate that particularly interests me is Justice Clarence Thomas’s historical analysis.
Justice Thomas has consistently argued that the Citizenship Clause should be interpreted according to what he believes was its original meaning when adopted after the Civil War.
His analysis begins with the Freedmen.
He argues that Congress was responding to the injustice of Dred Scott and ensuring that formerly enslaved Americans and their children would forever be recognized as citizens of the United States.
Whether someone agrees with his constitutional conclusions or not, I believe his emphasis on Reconstruction encourages Americans to study the history that gave rise to the Fourteenth Amendment.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has emphasized a broader understanding of Reconstruction.
She has argued that the Reconstruction Amendments established expansive constitutional protections intended to prevent future systems of racial exclusion and inequality.
Her approach reflects a broader interpretation of the Citizenship Clause and the Equal Protection Clause than the one advanced by Justice Thomas.
These differing judicial philosophies demonstrate that constitutional interpretation often involves disagreement over how historical principles should apply to modern circumstances.
As a descendant of the Freedmen, I believe many important conversations remain unfinished.
Those conversations include:
I believe these questions deserve careful historical research, thoughtful public discussion, and, where appropriate, legal examination.
I am not suggesting courts have already resolved these issues.
Rather, I believe they deserve serious consideration.
America’s story did not end in 1776.
It continued through the Civil War.
It continued through Reconstruction.
It continued through the abolition of slavery.
It continued through the expansion of constitutional rights.
Those chapters are just as much a part of America’s story as the Founding Era.
If we are going to celebrate 250 years of American history, then every generation that helped build this nation deserves to be remembered—including the descendants of the Freedmen.
America 250 should be more than a celebration.
It should also be a time of education, reflection, accountability, and renewed commitment to the Constitution.
Whether you agree with modern Supreme Court decisions or with differing judicial interpretations of the Fourteenth Amendment, I encourage every American to study Reconstruction for themselves.
Read the Constitution.
Read the debates surrounding the Reconstruction Amendments.
Read Dred Scott.
Read the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
Read the Fourteenth Amendment.
Read the Supreme Court’s opinions.
Then draw your own conclusions.
History matters.
The Constitution matters.
Understanding where we came from helps us decide where we are going.
As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, I hope more Americans will rediscover the story of the Freedmen, the Reconstruction Amendments, and the constitutional transformation that followed the Civil War.
That history belongs to all of us.
God bless America.