14th Amendment

• It struck down Black Codes - guaranteed all citizens equality before the law. It declared that the federal government could intervene if any states tried to deny rights of citizenship to any citizen and banned most of the old Confederate elite from holding office.
• All the old Confederate states rejected the 14th amendment - under constitution - could not become law . Northerners were angry due to 'Southern states did not seem to recognize that they had been defeated . Race riots occurred and the KKK got involved.