African American Struggles After 1865

Struggles After Emancipation Emancipation in 1865 prohibited slavery and proved to be an incredible mark in our Nation’s history. Freedom, though, didn’t solve all the ensuing issues the African American community would have to face. These issues and struggles range from the overwhelming prejudice that still thrived in the South even after the war, to poverty and education difficulties that troubled African Americans. Segregation, lynching, and general class order were also issues that younger generations like Ida B Wells, Frederick Douglass and W.E.B Du Bois fought to improve. Education and economics were two of the primary focuses after 1865 from the perspective of the black community and rebuilding South. This was the first time blacks

Houston Holloway once 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."2 This stemmed from the sudden change in social and physical constructs. People actually had a difficult time realizing they can’t own people, they actually had to pay their workers on plantations for farming, and they actually struggled to see them as equals. Following 1865, a period of what is now known as “reconstruction” took place. This lasted from 1866-1876 and was a way to re-enter the black community into the rest of the nation. President Andrew Johnson began this reconstruction by distributing land back to the freed slaves. One common practice that was especially interesting for the time, was that “40 acres and a mule”3 was all you needed to get by. This reconstruction, though, was very limited by the federal government and was left in great detail to the Southern states by themselves. This left much room for not necessarily slavery, but a great deal of injustice to sneak back into society. Black codes or sometimes called Jim Crow laws restricted daily life and punished blacks for almost everything. Some major restrictions included laws against interracial marriage and laws restricting freedom. A black man was not allowed to marry or have relations with a white woman for example. African Americans could not assemble in a church or a rally without the presence of a white person. And disagreements that went to court would often be given to a white male that always won. Punishments for these black codes range from jail time to even lynching. Black codes, when they were put into place, gave a huge incentive to arrest blacks for just about anything. Struggles especially arose because although they were learning and becoming educated, many still didn’t know about all of the codes and were targeted because of