Until Reconstruction and the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the US constitution, the statement "negroes are equal in political rights to whit

Until Reconstruction and the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the US constitution, the statement "negroes are equal in political rights to whites" was observably false. That's a big part of why the American Civil War was fought!