Impact Reconstruction On African Americans

History helps shape the future and what we can learn from it to make sure that we do not repeat the same mistakes. During Reconstruction, the country was trying to make amends after the war was over. The country needed to find a way to mend a broken nation because it was divided. The main issue during reconstruction was the status of African Americans because they wanted their civil rights, but could not get that. The question that needs to be answered is: who did the most to aid the cause of African American during Reconstruction, and why? Many organizations and people helped African Americans, but the Freedman’s Bureau did the most.

Reconstruction did not help African Americans move closer to the American Dream. Even though there were positives, there were also negatives. Due to Reconstruction, hate groups started, there was not any safety for African Americans, and the Black Codes or Jim Crow laws. One of the most infamous hate groups to rise was the Klu Klux Klan. KKK for short. African Americans were terrorized by this group. They are responsible for many hangings, burnings, and other horrors that were inflicted upon African Americans. Also, there was not any safety from the groups. It was not like being in the center of a city was going to help. There are unfortunately many pictures of African Americans being hanged in very populated areas. Also, there was the rise of Black Codes(Jim Crow laws). It is like how the saying goes, out of the frying pan and into the fire. Some of the codes, but not limited to, was the Grandfather clause, which basically said that if your grandfather could not vote, you cannot vote. There were also many other ways that African Americans were restricted from voting. There was poll tax, and unfair evaluations of voting tests. This also included segregation of schools (separate but equal). There was even a law forbidding a white person from marrying a black person. However, even though all of these horrific things came because the end of slavery,

Radical Reconstruction was a unique period in America which enabled previously unseen social and political changes for the South. However, the impact of these changes was quite limited in their influence. Radical Reconstruction was the ‘progressive’ period after Presidential Reconstruction that spanned from the passing of the Reconstruction Acts in 1867 until The Compromise of 1877. During this period African-Americans briefly felt the political and social effects of government action, namely a political voice, the suppression of racial terrorist groups and increased civil rights. This essay argues that whilst these were real positive social and political impacts for Southern African-Americans, their effects were not radical.

The United States was challenged with many issues after the Civil War like crop lien work contracts, segregation, and unresolved problems with the seceded states. This period was called Reconstruction.

During reconstruction the United States was divided on social issues, presidential campaigns were won and loss on these issues during this period. The struggle for development of African Americans and how they initiated change in political, economic, educational, and social conditions to shape their future and that of the United States. (Dixon, 2000) The South’s attempts to recover from the Civil war included determining what to do with newly freed slaves and finding labor to replace them. The task of elevating the Negro from slave to citizen was the most enormous one which had ever confronted the country. Local governments implemented mechanisms of discrimination to combat citizenship

The Reconstruction era was put into effect by Congress in 1866 and lasted until 1877. Reconstruction was aimed at reorganizing the Southern states after the Civil War. The reconstruction plan granted the means for readmitting the southern states into the Union, and tried to come up with the methods by which whites and blacks could live together in a non-slave society. America's position as a country was established on principles of freedom but those beliefs were weakened by slavery. At the end of the Civil War, many blacks felt that they were entitled to start collecting the benefits that had been denied for so many years. Being able to vote, own land and have a voice in political affairs were all goals that they believed were reachable.

Not only was Reconstruction ineffective to black people, it made their lives worse and took away their freedom. The Thirteenth Amendment does state that slavery shall no longer exist but the creation of the Black Codes and The Jim Crow Laws limited the lives of blacks even more than before. The removal of slavery was to give the former slaves a free life, but with these new laws, they had found a different way to abolish their freedom. They were separated from restaurants, homes, jobs, or any public place all because of their skin color. Congress and other whites believed that the newly freedmen were less than everyone else and did not deserve the same rights. The Black Codes were the first restrictions that were put on blacks. This included

Before reconstruction, the blacks and whites never really got along. The blacks were the whites slaves and they owned them, but after the reconstruction a lot of things changed, For example society, economy, and the government.

The proclamation by Lincoln provided freedom to millions of slaves which led to their active participation in American political life. The changes that were brought about during the Reconstruction phase was ultimately frustrating for African Americans, and the nation witnessed the rise of the white supremacy through racist organizations like Ku Klux Klan that gained popularity in the Southern States. The African Americans took time to change their lifestyle and were eager to enter every field. But even a century had passed since the Civil War there still existed resistance to the growth of the black people and this lingering racism and discrimination in America was chiefly responsible for the civil rights movement of the 1960s, which lead to

The Reconstruction era was the period that followed the end of the Civil War whose purpose was to reconstruct the United States. This was done to help rebuild the South and bring it back into the Union. The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments gave African Americans some civil liberties, they prohibited slavery, gave national citizenship for every person that was born in the United States, and voting rights can not be denied because of their race or color. Looking at this era, I will discuss how it affected the society of the Americans, the economy and the laws that were passed. Although the Reconstruction Era tried to help from the end of the Civil War into the early twentieth-century it resulted a failure to establish the civil rights for the African Americans.

Although I agree that Reconstruction did somewhat change the lives of African Americans, I disagree that Reconstruction was an overall success. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was still unfair as it did not free all slaves. Even the freed slaves of Nashville were not satisfied with the proclamation, and soon after sent a petition to the delegates demanding for the end of slavery (Foner, VOF, 2). General William Sherman’s Special Field Order #15 might have given the taste of freedom to freed blacks for a brief period of time, but was ineffective in the long run as President Johnson rescinded the order. Although the Thirteenth Amendment did bring an end to slavery, the freed slaves still had many limitations to their freedom because of the

In the United States History, the reconstruction history Period followed the adjustments after the civil war.

Blacks enjoyed the luxury of having some rights and help during the reconstruction, but after reconstruction was over people did many things to help put the blacks “back in their place.” For instance, state wide laws were ordered

Before the Reconstruction period, helping blacks was not even in the question; everyone’s focus was on the war. During the war, wealth had depleted even for the ones who had it. Even though there was nothing left when the war ended, at least the Confederacy had been almost completely wiped out. All in all, anything that had to do with the Confederates was not allowed in the formation of individual states. The fight was worth it in the end because in less than a couple of months the Freedmen’s Bureau was

Economic disparity and abject poverty suffered by African Americans during the reconstruction, the realty was “free people surrounded by many hostile whites”. One freedman, Houston Hartsfield Holloway, wrote, "For we colored people did not know how to be free and the white people did not know how to have a free colored person about them." (http://www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart5.html)