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The civil rights movement
Time after reconstruction era
Reconstruction period 1865-1877
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Blacks fell subject to discrimination and harassment again. Voting deterrents were at new high, with violence keeping blacks at home and fearful to go near the polls. Jim Crow laws were welcomed to the south and it seemed when African American to a step forward in American history, they were placed two step back. Eventually blacks were extinguished from state legislature in every southern state and positive colored influence came to a
“The slave went free: stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back into slavery.” This quote by Web Dubois refers to a period in American history called reconstruction in which the South was rebuilt and remitted into the union after the civil war. During this time African Americans gained many rights including citizenship and suffrage. However, many of those rights were lost after the compromise of 1877 brought an end to reconstruction. The south was solely responsible for killing reconstruction through its use of intimidation tactics by scalawags and carpetbaggers, the purposeful reversal of reconstruction policies, and the refusal to work together.
This started the era of Reconstruction. Reconstruction went from 1865-1877 and was the period when Congress passed laws designed to rebuild the country and bring the southern states back into the union. it also tried to bring rights to African Americans the issue with this goal was that things did get fixed for a little while like African Americans had voting rights and they had abolished slavery. However, Reconstruction was not successful because it failed to protect the social, economic, and political rights of African Americans.
The reconstruction was a period during US history, which took place after the Civil War when the South restructured into the Union from 1865 to 1877. The end of reconstruction was a justification that freed all African Americans from slavery. Although they had set this decision and law, African Americans still suffered from social, economic and political barriers, which caused major tension between blacks and whites. The civil rights act of 1875, racial discrimination was banned from public facilities, such as schools or public transportations. The fourteenth amendment protected people against violations of their civil rights b states, not by the actions of the individuals.
Life was worse for African Americans after the Civil War for numerous reasons. To start off with many of the reasons is the violence after the Civil War, the violence in the South was very bad because of the KKK was in the South because the KKK did lynchings on the blacks to keep the blacks from voting and it scared many African Americans which it did work, many blacks did not vote in the South and many whites threatened blacks if they voted that they would be killed. Racism was very well noticed in the South Many blacks were being mistreated and harassed just because of their color. Moreover the blacks sharecropping many of the blacks was very hard and this was the only way for them to do anything so they used crops instead of money and
Overall, during post-reconstruction Jim Crow led to the loss of rights, mass amounts of segregation, the killing and destruction of African
One of the main goals of Reconstruction was to require that the South give African-Americans equal rights. With slavery abolished, the Federal Government decided that it was now time to give African-Americans the rights given to the rest of American citizens. This was in the mid 1800s. Needless to say, these plans were not put in place, or at least not properly enforced, for many more years. It took a well-organized uprising by African-Americans about 100 years later to finally make some progress.
Positive gains from the Reconstruction Era include: Freedmen’s Bureau: food, Medicare, and legal advice granted to newly freed African Americans; 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment which abolished slavery, granted citizenship to everyone born in the U.S, and granting everyone the right to vote. Negative effects from the Reconstruction Era include: the KKK: a group of whites who threatened blacks so they wouldn’t vote, and killed many; Black Codes: laws that limited the freedom from U.S citizens. The effects of the Reconstruction, which linger in our society nowadays, are the three amendments passed by congress, the Civil Rights act of 1866, and black schools and universities were established; most importantly, we are once again a unified
A major part of the Reconstruction Era was The roaring 20’s, a time period of economic success and prosperity for many. It’s a time period where numerous people wish they were alive to experience, but those people were not people of color. Sadly, the roaring 20’s was not all that roaring for African Americans who were just recently emancipated. After liberation, a vast wave of African Americans moved to the North to pursue a life more successful than they’d have in the South. Little did they know, segregation and race relations has spread throughout the country and some people still didn’t treat them as equals.
The American Civil War ended in 1865, with defeat of the Southern States. Slavery as the root of the conflict between the North and the South was abolished in 1865 with passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. (Ransom, 1989) Despite the presidential efforts to deliver justice to blacks by passing the Fourteenth and the Fifteenth Amendments, racial discrimination in the U.S. continued for several decades. Blacks struggled during Reconstruction period that brings different form of servitude known as the Sharecropping.
Conditions of African American between 1865-1900 The 13th Amendment of 1865 abolished slavery in the United States. The period between 1865 to 1900 was the transformative period for African Americans. It was very challenging for them because it was a period of transition from slavery to freedom. They fought with the society for equality as they were treated as inferior and they still suffer from racism. They also became victims of economic exploitation as it was difficult for them to find a job.
The reconstruction period was a failure because African Americans, mainly males, were not treated with equality although the constitution said that the they were free and had the right to vote, be educated and had the right to liberty, life and the pursuit to happiness. Organizations, like the KKK, were created to harm freed slaves and their families. Laws were created such as the Black Codes restricting former slaves from their rights. African Americans endured a lot of violence over the years. “In Grayson, Texas, a white man and two friends murdered three former slaves because the wanted to ‘ thin the niggers out and drive them to their hole’”.
Racism’s Impact on Reconstruction While the issue of slavery evidently contributed to the divide that resulted in the American Civil War, it is debated whether prevailing ideals of racism caused the failure of the era following the war known as Reconstruction. With the abolishment of slavery, many of the southern states had to reassemble the social, economic, and political systems instilled in their societies. The Reconstruction Era was originally led by a radical republican government that pushed to raise taxes, establish coalition governments, and deprive former confederates of superiority they might have once held. However, during this time common views were obtained that the South could recover independently and that African Americans
Although we have come far since the days when the South was synonymous with discrimination, there is still a strong discriminatory culture permeating southern culture. It is this culture, this close-minded way of thinking that I have lived in my whole life. It is easy to succumb to such narrow thinking when you’re young, and I spent the beginning of my life blindly accepting that some people were better than others. I was taught that things like ethnicity, religion, and sexual preference could make people lesser. Then came the age of enlightenment.
In retrospect, the history of the antebellum America is quite fascinating. During this period, the young republic faced several challenges. One of the most serious ones was the slavery issue. Reading the related materials, people might understand that the Founding Fathers had actually pondered about the solution to the issue; however, they did not pursue it because they foresaw possible turmoil in American politics. Unfortunately, the issue kept simmering until it reached the boiling point which resulted in the disastrous Civil War.