During the period of Reconstruction (1865-1877) in the Southern United States local government positions had been taken over by the Republican Party. Through local militants and, what can be deemed by today standards, terrorist by the mid 1870’s many of these Republican office holders had been run out of town. These local militants also used intimidation to keep blacks from voting in the south. By doing these acts the Southern Democrats soon regained control of political power in the south and would start striping away rights of the black community. Once Democrats were back in power intimidation was no longer needed to keep blacks from voting, they set up some of the first laws that were specifically deemed to restrict the civil liberties of
Throughout world history, there were many big events or wars occurred that changed countries and people's life. In America's history, there was one war had a significant influence on two races, it was American Civil War. American Civil War freed the Black people, and stopped the slavery system. But this was just the start of the change. The most important period was the Reconstruction period during 1865 to 1877. There were many things happened during Reconstruction. Some people against the Africa American rights, like Tom Watson, who supported black enfranchisement in Georgia and throughout the South at first, but later agree the disenfranchisement of African American voters. Reconstruction had two part: the Presidential Reconstruction and
Reconstruction was an era of time in which the United States desired to reunite the nation, as soon as possible this era was first led by President Abraham Lincoln who added the thirteenth amendment which would abolish slavery, Lincoln also tried to pass The Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which would help reunite with the confederate states in the south, but the radical republicans rejected that plan, Lincoln turned to negotiation with the radical’s, but after one week of passing the thirteenth amendment, President Lincoln, was assassinated, the reconstruction responsibility was given to the next president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, the second leader of reconstruction, president Johnson was an obstacle to the radical Republicans in congress that wanted to ratify the fourteenth amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 for southern states, Johnson Claimed that these laws would take away rights from white men and give it to African Americans and vetoed them, but they were overridden by congress.
In 1866 the U.S. congress passed The civil rights act which allowed all black males the same citizenship no matter if they were a former slave or not as the white citizens of America. By passing this law it created tension in the south because African Americans had the same constitutional rights that white americans had. Some white people of the south resorted to lynching freed African Americans accused of crimes. Lynching is when a person would be murdered mainly by hanging and without the accused having the due process of the law. The victims did not receive a fair trial and their rights were not upheld what these people were doing was unconstitutional.
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Being as though this amendment was created and now applied to all people African Americans began developing many new skills that whites didn’t possess. “President Ulysses S. Grant supported Radical Reconstruction and enforced the protection of African Americans in the South through the use of the Force Acts passed by Congress. Grant suppressed the Ku Klux Klan, but was unable to resolve the escalating tensions inside the Republican party between the Carpetbaggers and the Scalawags (native whites in the South).” African Americans started off with making sure all African Americans had an education so that they may be able to work job and make their own money and succeed on their own
Following the Civil War, former slave-holding states felt the need to restrict the rights of black people, creating black codes. Many of these laws required the free black person to obtain "special written permission of his employer" in order to do things such as requesting non-working days, coming near the local parish, or possessing a weapon. These codes really demonstrated the existent segregation and unequal rights between the whites and blacks after the war. Consequently, the Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, even with the veto of President Andrew Johnson. The Act stated that any person born in the United States of America was a legal American citizen, regardless of other factors such as race, and thus shall benefit from all laws equally. Furthermore, the drafting of the 14th and 15th Amendments surfaced. The 14th Amendment allowed for protection so that "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." This was a huge step in the political and social values in the country. Johnson believed that "to force the right of suffrage out of the hands of white people and into the hands of blacks [was] an arbitrary violation." The 15th Amendment gave all men, regardless of race or other factors, the right to vote. The appearance of injustice through the form of black codes helped to spur the idea equal rights for
This was a tough political period for the entire United State’s population since it would affect not only one group made of people from the same ethnicity but would include all of them on its results. Even though both process were rough ones for these groups made of African-Americans, Whites, Northerners and Southerners, I believe the Presidential Reconstruction was the most challenging one for the Southerners states to fulfill. By that time, the Civil War had just ended, and the South was getting reorganized and reintegrated into the Union and at the same time, the possibility of inclusion, equality of rights and freedom for African-American slaves was still being discussed. This transition to free the slaves was just getting started, but there were not many people supporting this idea because of the possible consequences this could had brought.
Many people have different feelings towards the reconstruction era. But the reconstruction era was a success in some terms and a fail in other terms too. The reconstruction era did help most of the blacks during the time where they were going through slavery. The difference between the democrats and the republicans is they have different views in many topics and one being the reconstruction era. During the reconstruction era, there were tensions and conflicts that occurred like the Political conflicts and the Ku Klux Klan. The reconstruction era caused a good change during that time for the people that lived in the south states. For example, it allowed African American slaves to receive some freedom and gave them many opportunities. It allowed the fifteen amendment to happen so it
In the former Confederacy and neighboring states, local governments constructed a legal system aimed at re-establishing a society based on white supremacy. African American men were largely barred from voting. Legislation known as Jim Crow laws separated people of color from whites in schools, housing, jobs, and public gathering
After four prolonged years of the Civil War that took place in America the nation transpired broken, and required much need of being rebuilt into a nation of one. The newly freed slaves, after the Civil War, moved to different cities, freed slaves built Black churches and communities; they were capable of attending school, and even became more involved in politics. With this new found freedom many documents, agencies, and associations also arose such as: the Freedmen’s Bureau, the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, and the Black Codes. These documents and organizations played important roles during the Reconstruction Era. Arguably, the Reconstruction Era in America was extremely restrained. African Americans gained basic rights as humans, but given the bare
The newly passed laws became known as “Black Codes” and socially, they directly impacted the lives of all freedmen and indirectly benefited the white race. These laws restricted the rights of free African-American men and women (Doc A). In Opelousas, Louisiana, some of these restrictions were the denied right to keep or own a house in the town, the denied right to enter the town without special permission, the denied right to hold public meetings, the denied right to carry firearms or any kind of weapon, and a requirement that every negro must be in service of some white person (Doc A). The elite members in the South did everything they could to prevent blacks from gaining civic power, and the reasoning for supporting these codes ranged from fearing black political influence to the comfort of knowing farmers still had a stable and reliable work force. Even in the post civil war North, people believed blacks were unfit to be government officials (Doc E). Pro-freedman presses ran racist letters arguing blacks were not fit for the proper exercise of political duties, and their generation needed a period of probation and instruction in order to learn the ways in which society ran (Doc E). Many northerners felt blacks were incompetent to hold important jobs; therefore, the government was in no way aiding the reconstruction efforts to provide equality to all people in America.
This all ties into the civil right movement which was a huge struggle for African Americans simply because it was a movement that would try and make people equal, including many equal opportunities in employment, housing, voting rights, education, public facilities and also the right to be free from all racial discrimination. The civil right movement has been known to be called the second Reconstruction similar to the reconstruction that was imposed upon the south following the civil war. The 14th amendment in 1868 stated by law that was granted equal protection and the 15th amendment in 1870 which had also stated by law that giving the right to vote to all males no matter the race, which of course not many people agreed with. Later on in 1877 southern whites once again took over and took control of everything.
In 1866, Congress passed The Civil Rights Act of 1866 which allowed them to be genuine citizens and thus granted them federal protection under the law. Score for the blacks. Furthermore, the South was placed under military rule to ensure that this act was being enforced. During this tremendous time of freedom, blacks were allowed to vote and hold office – something that finally extended a voice and position in our country to their community. Meanwhile, whites were growing tired of all the nonsense. They wanted their beloved Old South back. Many refused to attend the integrated Reconstruction-era state constitutional conventions. Southern whites would use highly exaggerated and publicized incidences of “social injustices” to protect their claims of being thrown over to so-called negro domination. Any action was necessary that could help clinch their argument and overturn the Reconstruction
During the years of 1873-1923 was the worse for African American history. After 1877, blacks’ political rights were taken away through many occasions such as: fraud, intimidation, and murder. In 1890, legislators in Mississippi called a constitutional convention, implementing poll taxes, literacy requirements, and banned voting for people convicted of theft, perjury, arson, bribery, and burglary. Whites thought if they could put a limit to the educational achievements of Negroes, they could also stop their aspirations for Negro advancement.
Yet, by 1877 Democratic gatherings recovered their energy of the south and finished recreation. This was wrecking to the blacks. After every one of the steps they made were switched. From holding political workplaces, the privilege to vote, and taking part as equivalent individuals from society was changed. The south bit by bit reestablished the racially prejudicial laws. The two fundamental objectives they needed these laws to accomplish: disappointment and isolation. To take away the force that the blacks had picked up, the Democratic Party started to prevent Blacks from voting. There were numerous approaches to prevent blacks from voting. Some of these things were survey duties, charges were charged at voting stalls and were costly for most blacks, and the proficiency test. Since showing blacks were unlawful, most grown-up blacks were previous slaves and ignorant. What's more, the other objective, isolation, causes the democrats to make laws that isolated the schools and open
Since Southern people were still mad that African Americans were citizens now, could no longer be slaves, and that they may vote freely. So what many states did was enacted disenfranchisement laws that enabled blacks to vote. How they did this was by targeting offenses that were mostly likely being committed by African Americans. Many other people believe that this law was also made since they got rid of the property test so the wealthy people wanted to get rid of lower class voters and did this by enacting disenfranchisement. Even back then people started to form opinions about this and had to be for it and others had to be against it.