Congress needed a solution to the issue of black inequality, so they came up with some new amendments. These new amendments were the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. The Thirteenth Amendment was perhaps the starting point that got the ball rolling for equality. In Give Me Liberty, Eric Foner went into detail about each of the amendments, and stated, “On January 31st, 1865, Congress approved the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery throughout the entire Union-and in doing so, introduced the word ‘slavery’ to the Constitution for the first time” (541). Abolishing slavery was the first step for gaining equal rights for blacks because it gave them the ability to be their own person, and to fight for even more equal rights.…