[inquest]

I'd dispute the notion that reading the congressional debates is "absolute key" to understanding the 14th amendment. Mostly what you'd need to read is Section 1 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (see #25 on this thread). That provides pretty much the entire context necessary for Section 1 of the 14th amendment. Everything else is really just icing on the cake.

[Publius Valerius]

I agree that the 14th Amendment was ratified in order to constitutionalize the Civil Rights Act, but that is made quite clear in both the debates surrounding the adoption of the 14th Amendment and to some extent in the passage of the Civil Rights Act itself, the constitutionality of which was debated extensively.