To protect the rights of African Americans further, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment was a change to the Constitution ratified in 1868, granting citizenship to anyone born in the U.S. and guaranteeing all citizens equal protection of the law. State governments cannot treat some citizens as less equal than others. President Johnson opposed this new addition to the Constitution and he urged voters to throw Republican lawmakers out of office. Republican candidates won two-thirds majority in both of the houses in the 1866 election. From this point on, Congress controlled this Reconstruction.
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