It shaped the lives of millions of Black Americans whose families had lived in what became the United States since the earliest colonial period. Yet for generations, Black Americans were denied what many white immigrants could obtain: recognized membership in the political community. But the law still offered most of them a path that it denied to Black Americans. Their whiteness placed them within the boundaries of American citizenship, even when their accent, religion or national origin made them targets of discrimination. This post, Birthright Citizenship: The 14th Amendment Was America’s Answer to a Lie, appeared first on The Orlando Advocate.