8. What About The Fourteenth And Fifteenth Amendments?
The law is only as strong as its enforcement. While the nation’s largest cities – New York, Hartford, Boston, Philadelphia – were in the North, the South was mostly rural. Enforcing laws in remote areas, where there may not even be roads to the plantations, is as close to impossible as you can get.
And also consider that the culture of the South was fueled by white supremacy and racist hatred. Even if there were a police force that was officially tasked with ensuring that African Americans were granted equal rights as citizens, the people serving on it would not have carried out their duties.
