Toward the end of the war, Republican abolitionists were concerned that the Emancipation Proclamation would be viewed as a war act and thus unconstitutional once fighting ended.
They were also increasingly anxious to secure the freedom of all African Americans, not just those freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Thus pressed, Lincoln staked a large part of his 1864 presidential campaign on a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery throughout the United States.
The president’s campaign was bolstered by separate votes in Maryland and Missouri to abolish slavery in those states. Winning reelection in November, Lincoln pressed the lame-duck Congress to amend the Constitution immediately rather than wait for the incoming Congress to act in April. On January 31, 1865, Congress approved the 13th Amendment banning slavery in all U.S. states and territories. The amendment was ratified by the states in December.
In the last years of the war, the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation, the service of blacks in the army, and the movement for the Thirteenth Amendment created an environment that allowed African Americans to demand broader equality.
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where streetcars were segregated before the war, African Americans secured a desegregation law from the state legislature. In Illinois, statutes preventing blacks from testifying in state courts were overturned.
Following protests by African Americans, segregated schools in Detroit, Michigan, and in Rhode Island were desegregated. In several states, laws requiring blacks to own property before they could vote were seriously challenged for the first time. Many such activities would continue during Reconstruction.
