Essay On Reconstruction Dbq

After the Civil War, African Americans went from bondage into gaining liberty. Twentieth President James A. Garfield stated, “The elevation of the Negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the constitution.” However, the centuries of racism, prejudice, and devaluation took its toll on Southern society, and they would take another century before all Blacks could vote unhindered. The ratification of civil rights legislation created only a beginning of a change because the Emancipation Proclamation failed to free all slaves, Whites did not view Blacks as social equals, and most Southern Whites would not cooperate with the new laws. The Emancipation

Most Southern Whites did not agree Blacks should vote, hold office, or integrate into society. Even Southerners who supported Republican involvement, called “Scalawags”, were not with African Americans. One of the most prominent sources of White resistance was through the Ku Klux Klan. Document G showed a letter sent by Klansmen to Governor Henry C. Warmoth. This letter threatened the governor with death, a tactic commonly used by this White supremacist organization. They terrorized Blacks in the South and murdered many by lynching. They also used fear and intimidation to suppress African American suffrage. It was not until the Ku Klux Klan act of 1871 that the government made an attempt at cracking down on the terrorists and defending the rights of African Americans to vote. However, this act became almost obsolete after President Grant’s term. It would take until the civil rights movement before Blacks could vote uninhibited without poll taxes or literacy tests. The end of the Civil War brought along many changes for African Americans in the South. New legislation caused tension in the South as change swept through. The ratification of civil rights legislation created only a beginning of a change because the Emancipation Proclamation failed to free all slaves, Whites did not view Blacks as social equals, and most Southern Whites would not cooperate with the new laws. Despite the hardship and the tortures of the American slave system, Blacks continued to move forward, innovate, and trailblaze a new path to make America more