The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, guaranteed citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States." However, the subsequent decades saw a rise in discriminatory policies and violence targeting racial minorities, particularly African Americans, who were newly granted citizenship. How did this disconnect between the legal definition of citizenship and the lived experiences of racial minorities shape the concept of American national identity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?