Free People of Color, coordinated by Professor Gregory Downs (History), looks at the period following the 13th and 14th Amendments, the abolition of legal slavery, and the definition of some federal rights of both citizens and residents which created a new set of legal, political and social questions that continue to shape the United States today. Among other questions it asks: What does freedom mean in the absence of chattel slavery? Which rights adhere to all free people, and which rights functioned more as privileges belonging to a narrow few? How did the establishment of birthright national citizenship transform the legal rights both of citizens and of so-called aliens?
