Preview

The Importance Of The Thirteenth Amendment In The United States

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
341 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Importance Of The Thirteenth Amendment In The United States
WP3 Body 5

Claim: While the Thirteenth Amendment is a blessing for the wealthiest people of this nation, it is a curse for the rest of the American population because it led to the hatred of minorities.

Evidence: The Thirteenth Amendment loophole was responsible for the creation of President Nixon’s “War on Drugs”. John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s advisor of x once stated, once stated, “We understood we couldn't make it illegal to be young or poor or black in the United States, but we could criminalize their common pleasure. We understood that drugs were not the health problem we were making them out to be, but it was such a perfect issue...that we couldn't resist it (cite).”

Analysis:
The Nixon administration’s “War on Drugs” represent a manner

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ava DuVernay, a movie director and screenwriter, produced the film 13th to inform her audience how the 13th amendment has affected America’s criminal justice system.Taking a serious approach, DuVernay covers historical events, such as slavery, to present day events that have played a key role in the creation of America’s criminal justice system. This visual presentation demonstrates how corrupt the system is through the interviews, the background music and statistics. She utilizes interviewees from both the White and African American community in order to receive both perspectives. The source is organized by a timeline. She begins by doing a brief overview of slavery and the passing of the 13th amendments. Then, she discusses how these events…

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Initial thought of the 13th amendment is freedom, a freedom that was given to those forced into slavery. So if it was written to bring good to those affected; why is it that, it can be used to do more harm than good. Upon being written, the drafters set themselves up with an extremely credulous loophole, a clause that can go on simply missed by its definition. That same very clause which can be used as a method to legally make business out of slavery and to just as legally make enslavement a punishment for those who are incarcerated. Which is exactly what the Netflix Documentary, 13th, is all about, more specifically on how the American system of incarceration affects people of color. The film follows the chronological term of events in America’s…

    • 224 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sirin writes that her article “investigates presidential progress in addressing racial injustices and disparities within the context of the war on drugs” and argues that the possibility for racial justice depends on a progressive president choosing its pursuit as a personal agenda. Sirin examines the drug policies of presidents from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama, and when discussing President Reagan, she gives him responsibility for the “punitive policies that disproportionately affected certain racial/ethnic groups” found in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. She underscores his advocacy for federal mandatory minimum sentences, which created “the notorious 100 to 1 provision” under which five grams of crack cocaine carried the same prison sentence, five years, as 500 grams of powder cocaine. After explaining that crack cocaine users were typically poor and black, she notes that the resulting racial disparity in sentencing stayed in place until President Obama’s Fair Sentencing Act of 2010. Sirin clarifies that a progressive president will struggle without the legislature, judiciary, or public opinion, but she still holds that “most importantly, the president in office should have a progressive agenda to begin with in order to initiate and work towards key structural changes and policy reforms.” For this reason, according to her estimation, the president defines drug…

    • 1367 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Civil War was an extremely messy and complicated event in American History. While there are several factors that led to the Southern states to secede from the Union, it is historically impossible to pinpoint the last bullet fired. Moreover, in academia there is a barrage of opinions on what was the deciding factor for the Civil War; one thing it is evident is that there was animosity between both sides since the inception of the United States. Additionally, one has to examine the proposed amendments to the Constitution before the Civil War to notice that the jargon used never used the word ‘slavery.’ For instance, in February 1861, Representative Thomas Corwin proposed his and amendment that barred his last name to the 36th Congress that guaranteed the seceding states that the federal government would not intervene with the particular domestic institutions; however, the word slavery was never used in the document. Stipulating that the amendment had passed, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution would have been unconstitutional, and the banning of slavery would never have occurred.…

    • 300 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Plessy vs Ferguson

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Court ruled that, while the object of the Fourteenth Amendment was to create "absolute equality of the two races before the law," such equality extended only so far as political and civil rights (voting and serving on juries) not "social rights.” As Justice Henry Brown put it, "if one race be inferior to the other socially, the constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane." The Court held that the Thirteenth Amendment applied only to the imposition of slavery itself.…

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution happened after the War Reconstruction .It was meant to secure the rights of former slaves. It was proposed on June 13, 1866. It was made official on July 9, 1868. The amendment tells a broad definition of citizenship. For example the overruling of Dred Scott v. Sandford which had excluded slaves from possessing Constitutional rights. The amendment requires states to provide equal protection under law to all persons within their jurisdictions and was used in the 20th century to get rid of racial segregation in the…

    • 95 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    2. In favor of the Tinker children, it could be argued that of course since they were American citizens attending an American school, they are entitled to their rights to the same extent that a non-minor not in school is. Because it has been ruled the picketing, a form of protest, is a form of symbolic speech, and wearing these black armbands is also a form of protest, that it should be protected under the First Amendment as well. This is compounded by the Fourteenth Amendment, which extends Freedom of Speech to governments, such as school systems.…

    • 261 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Reconstruction Dbq

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In 1865, Amendment Thirteen of the United States was ratified. The article states that all slaves residing in the nation or any of its corresponding territories are deemed emancipated. (Document A) Though the article does publicly mandate emancipation, it fails in successfully granting freedom to previous slaves. Southern states imposed “black codes” upon the newly freedmen. These diminishing codes restricted various activities and behaviors of the black community. Many included the prevention of interracial marriage, black testaments against whites in court of law, and jobs outside of agriculture. Clearly, the Thirteenth Amendment was not strictly imposed upon the once rebellious southern states. Three years later, congress decided to enact another article that would annul the previously mandated Dred Scott Decision of 1957, which states that blacks could not be legal citizens. This newly established document was titled the Fourteenth Amendment. The amendment itself stated that all persons born or naturalized in the…

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    13th Reflection

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Although we have the 13th Amendment banning slavery, some believe that our government leaders still haven’t accepted it, and they have found other ways to continue the mistreatment of people of color. The movie 13th explores the controversial topic of racism and discrimination from African Americans’ perspectives. I agree with most of the information presented in this movie; I also support their overall conclusion that the 13th Amendment is a tool to get rid of African Americans in our society. I believe that your government has taken part in numerous ways to target and infuriate African Americans in society, even after the 13th Amendment and the Civil Rights movement. The quotes and information presented in this video strengthen my thoughts and ideas of the mistreatment and unjust behaviors towards African Americans.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Thirteenth Amendment had a major role in our history and was one of the most influential Amendments to have ever been passed in our country. “It put slavery to an end in the United States and was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, which gave a formal consent on December 6, 1865 (“Thirteenth Amendment”). Anti Slavery Acts and speeches led to the Thirteenth Amendment, resulting in the Great abolishment of Slavery (“Thirteenth Amendment”).…

    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    England, 1681; A man named Titus Oates had been found innocent of a crime, then retired, and found guilty of perjury. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and to be whipped for five days a year for the rest of his life. The whippings were so brutal, most people believed it to be an aim to kill him. Imagine this happening to you, well luckily it can’t, thanks to the Eighth Amendment. The Eighth Amendment’s enduring impact on American citizens’ lives contributed with it’s meaning and purpose, delineated in the constitution.…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This paper will examine the history of the “War on Drugs” and the racial and sentencing disparities that have resulted because of it. In the House of Representatives a new bill was introduced on January 7, 2009. Policy number H.R.265, was cited as “Drug Sentencing reform and Cocaine Kingpin Trafficking Act of 2009. The never ending drug trade and the policies that try to limit it, have far-reaching impacts in the United States and other countries. Over the last twenty years, U.S. politicians have responded to mounting drug abuse at the local and national levels with increasingly unjustly legislation. Cooperatively, these measures have become known as the ‘War on Drugs’. In the United States, these policies have focused on the link between drug, gang activity, and crime, emphasizing punishment over treatment. Mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses have been put in place, leading to an explosion in the number of people incarcerated nationwide. Racial disparities in drug sentencing, particularly in crack vs. powder cocaine offenses, also stem from the ‘War on Drugs’ policy. The War on Drugs is a prevention campaign that was established by the United States Government with the aid of participating countries, with the intention of reducing illegal drug trade. This initiative includes a set of laws and policies that are intended to discourage the manufacturing and distribution of illegal substances. The term was first used by then President Richard Nixon in 1969. In June of, Nixon officially declares a "war on drugs," identifying drug abuse as public enemy No. 1. Then in October of 1986 President Ronald Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of, which appropriated $1.7 billion to fight the drug war. The bill also created mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses, which are criticized for promoting…

    • 2419 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The 13th Amendment

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The 13th Amendment, passed by Congress January 31, 1865, and ratified December 6, 1865, states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." The passing of this amendment freed slaves and made it illegal to have slaves, but the 13th Amendment did not give African-Americans the equal rights that they longed for. Consequently, slavery was a major setback for African-Americans leaving them deprived of education, which in the long run made it difficult for African-Americans to obtain any type of power in the United States. This shortfall of education hindered African-Americans from…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Trebach, Arnold S. and Inciardi, James A. Legalize It? Debating American Drug Policy. The American University Press, Washington, DC. 1993.…

    • 1868 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Domicile means you must be a resident of the given area for getting college admission, job, land purchase, fighting elections etc.…

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays