The Compromise of 1877 officially ended the Reconstruction Era by pulling out the last of the troops located in the South who monitored the progress of the newly enacted amendments. The Southern Democrats’ civil rights laws promised by the Democrats were betrayed as they resumed oppressing black Americans socially, politically, and economically. Segregation and institutional racism perpetuated through a multitude of laws, anti-black politicians in positions of power, and forced, unscrupulous labor were factors that continued to keep black Americans inferior to the white man in the years following the Reconstruction (Compromise of 1877). The supreme court case known as Plessy vs. Ferguson gave legal right to a separate but equal policy in education …show more content…
Johnson was a democrat and a previous slave owner, which didn’t make him an avid supporter of Lincoln’s plan of Southern Reconstruction. What Lincoln had previously intended on doing was have criminal amnesty to Confederates who pledged allegiance to the Union and allowed states to hold a constitutional convention along with setting up their state government. Though Johnson kept some of the plan intact, he called for there to be no limits on voter allegiance for the Southern states. This sparked opposition from the Radical Republicans, a group of congressmen who believed black southerners should be guaranteed equality with whites. They deduced that Johnson shouldn’t set legislative policy for reconstruction as it wouldn’t lead to a country of tolerance that they worked to achieve. With the passing of Black Codes, black southerners experienced more oppression since their emancipation from slavery. In order to give them equal rights, Congress passed a Civil Rights Act to outlaw the prejudicial laws. However, President Johnson vetoed the act to maintain white supremacy, although Congress disregarded his word and overrode the action. This action exemplifies Johnson’s priorities of keeping black people as subservient as possible, specifically in the