The 14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment is first of the two post-Civil War, Reconstruction Amendments. In the beginning, it was intended to secure the rights of the former slaves. The 14th Amendment was also created to ensure that the states would recognize the individual rights protected by the government. The 14th Amendment was proposed on June 13, 1866 and was finally ratified on the 28th of July, 1868. In the beginning of the document, citizenship is formally defined and demands that the state provide all civil rights. It goes on to say that all persons born in the United States are United States citizens.
A clip from The Supreme Court Volume 2: "A New Kind of Justice"
"They go out washing, which is about as high as a colored woman gets, and their men go about idle, strutting up and down; and when the women come home, they ask for their money and take it all, and then scold because there is no food. I want you to consider on that, chil'n. I call you chil'n; you are somebody's chil'n, and I am old enough to be mother of all that is here. I want women to have their rights. In the courts women have no right, no voice; nobody speaks for them. I wish woman to have her voice there among the pettifoggers. If it is not a place fit for women, it is unfit for men to be there."
- Sojourner Truth, 1867
The above quote was taken from Sojourner Truth's Fourteenth Amendment speech where she assessed the fact that the Fourteenth Amendment really only helped the African American males (in terms of protected rights).