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Reconstruction Dbq Essay

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The Reconstruction Era through World War I provided the push African Americans needed for the Civil rights movement. The Reconstruction Era was the one period that represented the turning point for the African Americans. The Reconstruction Era was a success for the most part. The Reconstruction Era rightfully restored the nation as a unified whole. For one all of the states were finally acknowledging the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments. So it follows, the Reconstruction Era to World War I, then last but not least the Civil Rights Movement. The Reconstruction Era is a suitable starting point for African Americans. “Reconstruction- the effort to restore southern states to the Union and to redefine African Americans’ place in …show more content…

On January 31, 1865 the thirteenth amendment legally abolished slavery “Except as a punishment granted Congress the ‘power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation’” (TAY, Chap 15 Sec II). Towards the end of the year things were improving. Most of the states were favoring the amendment. Around four million blacks were free from slavery (TAY, Chap 15 Sec II). Lincoln ended setting the pace for millions of African Americans. Being in the Union was important for the African Americans to become unified so that way they would feel equal. There had been mobbed violence against blacks of the south that leaded to them wanting a better system. There needed to be a better method for southern states to be reinstated to the Union (TAY Chap 15 Sec II). Soon after, came the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This act essentially said that all American born warranted all the rights that everyone else got. The Fourteenth Amendment went right along with the Civil Rights Act. The fourteenth amendment really was an enforcer for authority. So all the work that Lincoln was trying to accomplish was soon enough going to be shot down. President Johnson opposed both the …show more content…

During the Great War, tens of thousands of black men were drafted in large numbers to help France (W.E.B Dubois). It just doesn’t seem right to have the soldiers returning home to a place and a country they were fighting for mistreating them as unequal. Du Bois at the time of the war was making his mark in history. He believed in protest and activism to help advance right for African Americans (Du Bois). Although Du Bois supported the Great War effort things still weren’t going the right way. Even the War Department was keeping African Americans from combat, mainly to avoid what could be racial tension (TAY Chap 15 Sec IV). Du Bois viewed that if black soldiers were drafted and then died fighting for our country, then they should earn full citizenship just like the whites (TAY Chap 15 Sec IV) In the aftermath of the war things were finally shaping up. Most African Americans fled the south. Most of the men ended up moving around halfway around the world to fight for those who use to treat them so poorly. Du Bois wrote boldly about returning soldiers: “We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting. Make way for Democracy” (Du

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