The question says, "The passage provides information sufficient to answer which one of the following questions?"
You asked why (D) is incorrect, so let's take a look.
(D) says, "Are there textual ambiguities in the Fourteenth Amendment that spurred the conflict over U.S. citizenship for African Americans?"
It's important to keep in mind not to bring any outside knowledge you know into your answering of this question. The only information you should use to answer the question is information that is contained within the passage. Based on what the passage says, the 14th amendment did not genuinely resolve the issue of citizenship for African Americans (lines 11-14), but we're never told why this is the case. Was it unclear wording? Was it not enforceable? We don't have any idea of whether or not there were textual ambiguities in the 14th amendment based on the information we have in the passage, so we can get rid of this answer choice since the passage doesn't provide us with information sufficient to answer the question (D) provides.
(E) says, "In what ways did African American leaders respond to the question of citizenship for African Americans in the latter part of the nineteenth century?"
In lines 18-21, the second paragraph of the passage says, "While some black leaders insisted on their right to U.S. citizenship, others called on black people to emigrate and find a homeland of their own." This text provides support for answering the question (E) poses, as it shows different ways that African American leaders responded to the question of citizenship for blacks in the latter part of the 19th century. Thus, (E) is the correct answer choice.
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Shiyi-Zhangon February 22, 2019
If the 14th Amendment defined citizenship, doesn't that mean that there is no textual ambiguities?
Ravion February 22, 2019
@Shiyi-Zhang,
Good question. Not necessarily. It's entirely possible that the 14th amendment could define citizenship, but there still could be textual ambiguities. Think about it. This is what many lawyers do. They argue about ambiguities in laws and statues to try to prove their cases. All we know is that the 14th amendment defined citizenship, but we don't know how well or how poorly it defined it.
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