At the end of civil war in the united states in the nineteenth century, American slaves were free, but not from discrimination. The country had expanded its territory to the west that allowed some people to relocate rather than just staying in south alone. Those who remained in the south faced various hardships whereas those who moved to the west experienced vast challenges. When the Congress passed the civil rights bill in 1866 followed by Reconstruction in the following year, it implied that the former slaves acquired equal status with the whites. In the south, the hope for racial equality among the blacks and immigrant communities was contested, more so by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), which used fear and terror to promote white supremacy. Both
However, all acts of reconstruction were cut short when the South ultimately killed it. People like the Ku Klux Klan helped to ensure that reconstruction would be stopped and the South would regain its power. The Ku Klux Klan was one of the main groups of people that destroyed reconstruction because of their extreme ways. They used violence as a way to achieve their goal of destroying reconstruction. They killed many people just because of the color of their skin.
When the Civil War came to an end, Congress passed legislation on several civil rights issues that aimed at safeguarding those who had previously been slaves. However, even though this legislation had been passed, there was still a prevalent culture of racism that opposed the legislation. This resulted in the civil rights movement, a mass popular movement to acquire equal rights and opportunities for African Americans. Demonstrators pursued their goals through legal legislation, petitions, and nonviolent protests. It took the actions of many brave leaders to end the segregation between African American and Caucasians communities, which lead to many innocent lives to be lost in the process.
Due to the ratification of the amendments, many southern elites could not stand the fact that African Americans were freed. One solution that was developed was to destroy reconstruction by murdering Black Americans. The Ku Klux Klan was then formed, this group consisted of vindictive Confederate Army veterans. Sought out to be heros to many southern democrats, but a nightmare for African American families. The Ku Klux Klan terrorized many African American families, burned down churches, drove thousands of families out of their homes, and caused great mayhem.
Equality for African Americans did not get put into place after the Civil War because of Lincoln’s assassination, nobody after him would necessarily support civil rights because they either didn’t support it, or they didn’t want to show they supported it because they would have had a chance of losing office. The South also depended heavily on slave trade; most southerners didn’t just give up their slaves they had already “owned”. The Ku Klux Klan Act was an act
As a result of the end of the Civil War in 1865, which was fought over the system of slavery, three amendments were passed in order to achieve equality between whites and African Americans. Slavery was abolished by the 13th amendment, citizenship was given to all African Americans in the 14th amendment and suffrage for men was provided under the 15th amendment. Although these rights were given to African Americans, many southern states found ways to still mistreat them. Furthermore, one of the biggest mistakes during the Reconstruction Era was not to give any kind of economic resources or opportunities for African Americans. Although they technically had freedom, many found themselves forced to go back to their previous job as they had no
Before the Civil War most black people living in America were slaves. Once the Civil War ended slavery was abolished and black people were given rights. However, people in the south thought otherwise. After the civil war, slavery returned in the form of convict leasing, blacks lost rights again, and were arrested for petty crimes.
In that span, blacks paid their debt to Abraham Lincoln, their Great Emancipator, by loyally voting for his party in local, state, and national elections. During Reconstruction, Republicans rewarded that loyalty by pressing for civil rights legislation and other protections for black citizens. They secured passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which sought to protect blacks’ access to public accommodations; and it was President Grant who successfully – although only temporarily – destroyed the Ku Klux Klan and its efforts to intimidate and disfranchise black voters. However, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Republican enthusiasm for black causes appeared to wane.
The Union triumph in the Civil War in 1865 may have given exactly 4 million slaves their flexibility, yet the procedure of revamping the South amid the Reconstruction period (1865-1877) presented another arrangement of critical difficulties. Under the organization of President Andrew Johnson in 1865 and 1866, new southern state lawmaking bodies passed prohibitive "dark codes" to control the work and conduct of previous slaves and other African Americans. Insult in the North over these codes disintegrated backing for the methodology known as Presidential Reconstruction and prompted the triumph of the more radical wing of the Republican Party. Amid Radical Reconstruction, which started in 1867, recently liberated blacks picked up a voice in government without precedent for American history, winning decision to southern state lawmaking bodies and even to the U.S. Congress. In under 10 years, in any case, reactionary forces–including the Ku Klux Klan–would reverse the progressions created by Radical
Reconstruction caused prejudice and inequality. To elaborate, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Codes were both in the time period of reconstruction, which caused chaos and violence throughout the Union. One of the goals of reconstruction was to repair the economy in the South, because it depended on slavery, which was now illegal, due to the thirteenth amendment. The South’s economic system now depended on Sharecropping, which caused former slaves to be in constant debt and was unjust to the black society. The reconstruction time period, was a time of dispute between the Union.
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