The Reconstruction period after the Civil War was not effective. Numerous conflicts between President Johnson and Congress led to an inability to make decisions in government. Although laws were introduced by Congress to prevent slavery, Black Codes were created in the South which heavily restricted the rights of African Americans. Angry Southerners also created rebel groups in order to retaliate against the Radical Republicans. The Reconstruction was not effective as indecisiveness in government, the creation of Black Codes, and the introduction of rebel groups caused many of the problems prior to Civil War to be left unsolved. Throughout his presidency, Andrew Johnson repeatedly clashed with Congress. The former Governor of Tennessee, was the only southern senator to remain loyal to the Union. In addition, his plan for Reconstruction was often views as too lenient. For example, President Johnson had pardoned the former …show more content…
The Ku Klux Klan was a secret terrorist organization that was created by six well educated Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee in the December of 1865. Their main objective was to restore white supremacy through acts of violence such as murder, against both Black and White Republicans. The KKK had eventually spread to every southern state, and Klansmen would often terrorize republicans regardless of their race. Members of the KKK believed that African Americans were inferior to Whites and did not believe that Blacks deserved equal rights. Although the rebel groups were outlawed and made illegal, many of them remained in existence and appeared after the reconstruction had ended. This proved the Reconstruction to be ineffective as many Southerners were still fighting against the government and opposed them. In addition, African Americans were still deprived of their rights by these
However Southern resistance is the most responsible for the end of reconstruction. As Document A says that Senator John from caswell was murdered by the Ku-Klux Klan gang from the South who “stabbed” him “five or six times and then hanged on a hook in the Grand Jury room.” The political cartoon shows KKK (Ku-Klux Klan) threatening congressmen from South. (Document A). Also, Document B says that KKK (Ku-Klux Klan) terrorised Colby (a former slave elected to the Georgia State legislature) in order to force him to vote for Democrats and blamed that Colby carried “Negroes against them” The Political cartoon shows that KKK (Ku-Klux Klan) pointing gun at Colby and forcing him to vote the Democrats. This shows KKK (Ku-Klux Klan) used violence and
After the civil war there was an effort to reconstruct the south states and their society. But the north wanted to combine the African-Americans into the society. The south didn't really want the African-Americans they also wanted all the reconstruction to end. The south killed reconstruction because they didn't thrive for their interest in equal rights and their relentless violence towards the African-Americans and the north’s absence of sympathy to the African-Americans.
Charles Kettering once said that “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.” Many difficult changes occurred between the years of 1820 and 1848. This era brought vibrant political movements towards a greater democracy and was a time of advancements and reformation, which forever impacted American ideals. Issues with slavery, women’s rights, and the common man indicate a large shift in American society due to political and economic changes from 1820 to 1848.
In the 20th century, the United States had two great events that brought changes to American society in social, political and economic were the Civil War and Reconstruction. After the end of the Civil War, the slavery was abolished as part of the 13th amendment during the Reconstruction era throughout the United States, however the Southern States continue the hatred against the African American as a result of amounts of factors such as Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, white supremacist violence, and the enforcement of involuntary labor affected in the utmost indignation of the whole history of the United States.
Although some of the effects of Reconstruction remained, such as the emancipation of slaves, their right to vote and a large amount of racism within the American South, the Civil Rights movement brought substantial changes in the form of an increase in the realization of the wrongs of segregation, a dramatic rise in civil unrest because of said injustices and an ever growing need for the national government to intervene in this situation, resulting in the integration of African Americans. Due to the failure of Reconstruction, the objectives that were supposed to be realized then with emancipation had to wait nearly an additional century in order to come into fruition. However, despite the racism in the American South, the Civil Rights movement
In 1867, the Ku Klux Klan formed in Tennessee. The Ku Klux Klan were persecuted African Americans in order to prevent them from voting. They favor the Whites to dominate the United States. Black Codes were passed in the South which prohibited blacks from owning property and restricted their rights including their labor
Despite the arguments that Reconstruction’s social failure was caused sharecropping and the lack of military enforcement, white resistance towards African American equality was the primary reason as to why Reconstruction failed socially. During the period of Reconstruction, 1865-1877, Southern states had to be reconstructed so that ex-slaves could experience their rights after 250 years of bondage. Through all the Reconstruction that took place to allow ex-slaves to become equal to their white counterparts, Reconstruction still failed socially.
There were many different opinions on how Reconstruction should have been handled. Johnson’s plan was extremely lenient towards the Southerners, while the Radical Republicans’ plan punished the South greatly. Lincoln’s plan was the middle ground of the spectrum. In my opinion, I believe that Lincoln’s plan would have been the most effective plan in bringing the Union back together in a stable and fair way.
After the American Civil War in which attempts were made to solve the political, social, and economic factors arising from the readmission to the Union of the Confederate States that had seceded at or before the outbreak of war. President Abraham Lincoln planned to readmit states with a criterion in which 10% of the voters had pledged loyalty to the Union. This lenient approach was opposed by the Radical Republicans, who favored the measures passed in the Wade-Davis Bill. Andrew Johnson became the President after Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. He wanted to keep it simple and easy to restore the local rule. So, he took over and continued with the moderate policies of Lincoln, but due to the enactment in the South of the black codes and the demand for stricter legislation in the North resulted in victories of Radical Republicans
The period following the Civil War is known as the reconstruction period, and it was the most turbulent times in American history. After the Civil War ended, four million African Americans were freed, but at a cost. The South ended up being destroyed and no one planned to integrate the newly freed women and men into society. The reconstruction period was set in place to rebuild the Southern government, society and economy because the country was in disarray and needed to be brought back together. The reconstruction period of the United States was a failure because it brought terrible things to light, including the Klu Klux Klan, and Black Codes.
The Ku Klux Klan, an anti-radical and anti-immigrant organization, was founded in 1866 by ex-Confederate soldiers of the civil war. At that time the Republic party was working on creating political equality for the blacks. Since the organization was against the policies of the Republic Party, the Klan dissolved during the years of Reconstruction, but it became prominent again in the 1920s. From there on the Klan did not only target blacks, but they also widen their denouncement towards Catholics, Jews and foreigners. The Klan supported “fundamentalism and devout patriotism” along with advocating white supremacy (American Experience). They violently attacked black activists, the church, and schools in order to embraced a return to "clean living".
Lincoln had been trying to reunite the union, and move forward for all groups of people in those six days. He had started the Freedmen’s Bureau, in hopes of helping poor white Southerners and African Americans to move past the civil war, and start a new era of prosperity and equality. It says in “The Freedmen’s Bureau,” that this organization “supervised all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen, including issuing rations, clothing and medicine.” This shows that their goal was to help poor Southerners and newly freed African Americans. Furthermore, he established the thirteenth amendment, along with the “Ten Percent Plan.” These new plans/rules helped the nation progress in terms of freeing slaves (the thirteenth amendment declared them free) and moving forward (the “Ten-Percent Plan” allowed the rebellious states to be eventually be readmitted if 10% of eligible voters swore allegiance to the union). However, with the end of his presidency (and life), Andrew Johnson was next to be inaugurated into office. President Johnson was a southerner who had caused many issues. According to “How did the assassination of Abraham Lincoln affect Reconstruction?,” Southern States had “passed numerous laws restricting the rights of blacks. They were known as the ‘Black codes’. Mississippi, for example, barred interracial marriages. The punishment for such an act was death.” This implies that Johnson
Six Confederate veterans from Pulaski, Tennessee created the original Ku Klux Klan on December 24, 1865, during the Reconstruction of the South after the Civil War. The KKK stretched into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a mouthpiece for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies designed to create political and economic equality for blacks. The members conducted a campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black Republican leaders. Though Congress passed legislation
infamous and oldest of American hate groups” (SPLC). The Ku Klux Klan started during Reconstruction, a period of rebuilding in the South after the end of the Civil War. It was originally started as a vigilante group to terrorize and intimidate former slaves and to try to keep former slaves from gaining equal rights and to influence control over the so called “carpet baggers”, or northerners, that moved south to try and bring equality to the former slaves and profit from the damaged south. Although the first era of the Ku Klux Klan was violent and associated with tar-and-featherings, lynching’s, rapes, and other attacks, it had a relatively short lived height of activity given the period of time. The Ku Klux Klan officially disbanded after
The Ku Klux Klan( K.K.K.) is a domestic terrorist organization established during the Reconstruction era. Slavery was no longer a legal business during this time period but freedom was hardly available to millions of newly freed blacks. The membership of the hate group was dominated by lawmakers, more specifically republicans from Pulaski, Tennessee. White men and women dressed in white robes and cone shaped masks and often rallied at night to terrorize black communities. The mindsets of Klan members were centered on black and white- no metaphor. They felt that the white race was superior and blacks were inferior. In the southern states black people were being murdered and terrorized by the thousands and because the Klan had direct influences with the local police forces, judges, and medical professionals, there was no justice for black victims.