Following the ending of the Civil War in 1865, America was in an era known as the Reconstruction. The Reconstruction lasted until 1877. Citizens were attempting to rebuild our nation following one of the deadliest war in American History. In this time, the Fourteenth Amendment and Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution were ratified. Although slaves were freed, African Americans still faced intense racial prejudice and discrimination. This led to continued to tensions between not only the north and south but also the blacks and the whites in America. According to The Unfinished Nation, the per capita income of African Americans increase from about one-quarter to about one-half of the per capita income of White citizens (365). Sadly certain …show more content…
The damage of this system negatively affected both freed slaves and poor whites. It began as a type of credit system that allowed farmers to purchase what they needed from a store with credit. The merchants quickly took advantage of the market. According to Brinkley, “Most local stores had no competition and thus could set interest rates as high as 50 or 60 percent” (365). The high-interest rate left consumers with large debt that people were often unable to escape. Brinkley also states, “Due to the Crop-Lien system, many freed slaves quickly lost any land they acquired” (365). This left former slaves with a serious burden of …show more content…
As a result of this, racist organizations were founded to wreaked havoc on former slaves. Secret societies in the southern united states, such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camellia used violence against the blacks. Their goal was often to keep blacks out of politics. Our textbook states, “In other states, where blacks were a majority or where the populations of the two races were almost equal, whites used outright intimidation and violence to undermine the Reconstruction regimes” (Brinkley 368). The people involved in such organizations were using violence to take away the fifteenth amendment right from the former slaves. There were even paramilitary organizations; Brinkley says, “the Red Shirts and White Leagues armed themselves to ‘police’ elections and worked to force all white males to join the democratic party” (368). On the other hand, these organizations worked to keep white men on their side and against the newly freed slave population. As a consequence of the aggressive actions taken, the former slaves’ rights were not properly protected during the Reconstruction
In the time period of 1860 to 1877, the social and constitutional developments caused a revolutionary change to the social structure of the South, but more so to the constitution. The fight for constitutional amendments became very important to the federal government after the civil war and during the reconstruction era. This caused major backlash from many people in the South, and state governments passed laws such as the Black Codes, which restricted black people’s freedom. As the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were passed, terrorist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) were created to scare african americans away from voting, among other activities. The federal government responded to these retaliations by placing armed forces in the
The passage of Reconstruction legislation, namely the Freemen’s Bureau Act, the Civil Rights Bill, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and the First Reconstruction Act of 1867, gave African Americans greater economic and political rights, ultimately contributing to the Klan’s formation. First, as John Faragher stated, the establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau in March 1865 entitled former slaves to benefits such as “food, clothing, and fuel.” (Out of Many, p. 364) Then in 1866, with the passing of the Civil Rights Bill and Fourteenth Amendment, “full citizenship rights” were granted to former slaves, according to Faragher. (Out of Many, p. 362)
In the 19th century, slavery and the Reconstruction was a sore subject for the South. Reconstruction forged civil rights for African-Americans, but once the North’s influenced waned in the South, the South terrorized African-Americans and blocked them from accessing their newfound rights. While Reconstruction may have brought civil rights, those rights were quickly squashed by the South’s racism. Even after certain freedoms were securely gained, every new attempt to make African-Americans equal to the white populace was contested. A large group of people were happy to see slavery ended and civil rights rise.
Some of the most egregious crimes against Civil Rights Workers were committed by members of the White Knights. This includes the assassination of Medgar Evers and the murders of three Civil Rights workers near Philadelphia, Mississippi. The sad thing is that law enforcement officials were members of the White Knights or turned the other way when the White Knights committed crimes. In some instances, law officials played a part in “delivering” victims to the Klan. But Mississippi society as a whole was guilty and let the White Knights have free reign.
Resistance to Reconstruction was incredibly aggressive and violent since Southerners were extremely appalled by the radical social transformations that were resulting from Reconstruction, so those Southerners terrorized and killed the Republicans and the black people responsible for the changes. Black people were supposedly guaranteed equality before the law by the 14th amendment, however, their rights were not always upheld. Southerners would kill black people over minor actions, like not yielding to whites on sidewalks or attempting to buy land. A terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), formed in 1866 to punish people who “defied the norms of white supremacy”. Ordinary black people were killed by the KKK alongside black and white
He then goes into detail about the low percentages of the African American people who were in congress or in higher offices for the negro carpet bag rule. Although many African Americans that studied in the north returned to the south after the war, many were still illiterate and unprepared to participate in voting which lead to corruption. The author then reports Caucasian men were corrupt in a way that decreased the African Americans from being officials or testifying against a Caucasian and overthrowing them. The author concludes with the Ku Klux Klan which terrorized the African American with violence due to the increase of Caucasians not tolerating blacks as
The wealthy were in need of cheap labor, and with the amount of blacks being sentenced, most jails still functioning were overflowing with them. Leasing was designed for black convicts, and laws passed allowed towns and independent men to lease them for a price. They black convicts were put to work building railroads, levees or doing work for private owners. The convicts did work that free labor could not. Conditions were horrible and they were forced to work knee deep in muck, in malaria-ridden swamps, and to dynamite tunnels.
Former slaves who “tried to vote or participate in politics [were] likely to be singled out for “punishment”” by a terrorist organization named as the Ku Klux Klan, until the Congress passed the Force Bill in 1871 that gave the federal authorities the right to arrest and pursue active members of the KKK. But, the bill appeared to be only figurative as not really much of the Klan’s members were prosecuted (Hazen
They found each others company comforting a new way rather than the idea of fear bring them together. African Americans also, “enthusiastically participated in politics”. Black happily voted and became equal, by law, to whites because their voices were heard when it came to the
To keep this from happening farmers made the sharecroppers indebted to them keeping the sharecroppers from having any money to support themselves. As stated, sharecropping had drastic effects on the relationship between black people and white people. Examples of this are shown when the article states: “Well, I’ve had so much trouble with these black people, I’m going to employ white people” (Painter para. 13) Additionally, the overall actions between black and white people rose wages (Painter para.
The period between 1865 and 1910 in America was a time of not only great pain and destruction but also great transition and perseverance. Various ethnic groups and different demographics suffered immense discrimination and tragedy, such as different movements put in place to put an end to different Native American peoples or the lack of gender equality during everyday life for women and men of any race/ethnicity. On top of this, as some corporations came onto a great amount of wealth and prosperity, millions of the country’s working class population, which soon included a second wave of European immigrants, lived under poverty with seemingly no social mobility. Despite these negatives, there were still some benefits to come out of this time
Frederickson argues African Americans simply did not have the time or preparation to oppose racist forces. Using paramilitary forces, southern redeemers easily made threats to reconstruction forces as seen through the emergence of the violent Ku Klux Klan during the election of 1866. The opportunity for African Americans to gain a stance in society was short lived by the racist efforts of democrats in the south and impartial ideals from
How the former slaves would reenter society was a debatable topic, and compromising between an ultra conservative and ultra liberal plan was not an option. The result was a mediocre, confused community. While the Radicals granted rights (such as “universal suffrage”) to the black citizens of the South, Johnson reassured white supremacy (with documents such as the “Black Codes”). The South reacted with racial violence and the formation of the Ku Klux Klan, a racist terrorist organization. The differences of the plans did not fit well together, so neither fully
After the tensions and the loss of the Confederate fight in the American Civil War, hardships were endured with immense animosity towards the black population and the reconstruction policies that were enforced by the Republican party. This shared extreme hate and hostility by white southern men led to the creation of the infamous group titled the Ku Klux Klan on June 9th, 1866, only a little over a year after the end of the civil war. The formation of the Ku Klux Klan induced pure hatred towards blacks in the beginning, but would later turn into an organization that opposed anti-Americanism, such as immigration, women 's rights, organized labor, and any religious order that didn’t pertain to that of protestantism. This was enhanced by the