I Pledge Allegiance Basic Outline by Daniel Crandol

My essay is about defining all of the qualities that truly defines an American citizen. The central
theme is definitely one of nationalistic identity; clearly defining based on the Constitution what
dictates citizenship in todays society. Ive found that many people often refer to themselves as
Asian American or African American, which is ethically correct but they seem to put an
increased emphasis on their culture and heritage, hence putting the ethnicity in front of
American. Ive always found that they focus so much on their ethnicity that they can often
negate these special privileges bestowed to them by the Constitution. To them its about being
Ethnic first, then American second. Not taking anything away from their culture of course,
but I believe that they should also be aware of how their American identity allows them to better
accommodate to their own culture without fear of prosecution or judgement (i.e. 14th
Amendment, 15th Amendment, 19th Amendment)
Ill be using the 14th Amendment as my primary constitutional source for this essay, because its
the one facet of the Constitution that relates to the topic directly. Because it was published right
after the Civil War, the war that left our country a house divided that could not stand, it would
definitely add some much-needed gravitas to my essay. The 14th Amendments more
contemporary function was to simply endow newly freed African American slaves with badges
of American citizenship centuries-overdue, but I believe that its true historical significance is in
defining who is an American citizen and what privileges/duties that theyre entitled. We all know
what caused the Civil War, but what many of us dont envision is the calm before the storm, the
domino effect that led to the South bombing Fort Sumter. After some research, I found that
many Southerners felt that they werent being granted the exact same privileges as Northerners,
and were often had to provide the reluctant backbone for which the country could. This led to a
sense of sectionalism, in which they felt that they became second-class citizens in their country
with slaves not far behind. This feeling was rectified by the Constitution vicariously through the
14th Amendment.
I also decided to use the 15th Amendment as the subject of one of my body paragraphs. Also
ratified during the Reconstruction era in the 1870s, this amendment gives freed African
Americans the right to vote, another important aspect of citizenship that many of us often take
for granted. This vestige of citizenship had previously been manipulated and sometimes nullified
by white Southerners who were adamant that blacks should still be seen as property, not people.
However, the Constitution ensures that African Americans are put on the same pedestal as
everyone else, and can be attributed with the same unalienable rights.

For my last amendment from the U.S. Constitution, Ill be employing the 19th Amendment. It
expands upon the significance of voting as a natural extension of the certain innumerable rights
granted to citizens of the U.S.A. It addresses suffrage for American women who were most
certainly not an ethnic minority but were very much marginalized during prior historical periods.
Women were regarded as second-class citizens who just happened to inherent first-class
citizenship privileges back then, which is something that the 19th Amendment rectified with
great aplomb. By using these historical events and landmark documents for my historical
backbone, my essay will definitely have legs that can carry this argument from beginning to
conclusion.