Some of the most important decisions of the Supreme Court which affected slavery and involuntary servitude of African American people are in the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Congress passed and sent this Amendment to the states for ratification before the Civil War ended, it abolished slavery and involuntary servitude and authorized Congress to enact appropriate legislation implementing the abolition. The Amendment also made black people citizens of the United States .
A few months after ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which gave black citizens "the same right in every state...to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, ...to inherit, purchase, sell, and convey real and personal property; and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property as is enjoyed by white citizens." Its guarantees constituted appropriate means of enforcing black people's right to not be held in bondage.
