A controversial part of the history of the USA. Its effects still shape American culture and politics today.
Early of reconstruction
The Radical Republican faction pushes the idea of reform as early as 1864, through the Wade-Davis Bill requiring 50% percent of male white voters in the rebel states to swear loyalty to the union. Abraham Lincoln refuses to sign it into law.
The Ku Klux Klan is created in 1965 as a terrorist group resisting Reconstruction and attacking former slaves.
Presidential reconstruction by Andrew Johnson
Creation of the Freedmen’s bureau: these agencies are tasked with to assisting the newly freed men to find jobs and integrate into a free society.
Racial agitation: race riots in Memphis and New Orleans of 1866. Public opinion blames Andrew Johnson.
Radical Reconstruction or Congressional reconstruction
Congress takes control of reconstruction from President Johnson thought to be too sympathetic to the Southern states.
The Reconstruction Acts of 1867-1868: The rebel states are divided into five military districts until they can be readmitted into the Union.
Former Union general Ulysses Grant is elected president in 1868. He supports the so-called congressional reconstruction.
The 1870 midterm elections see the election of 14 Black members of Congress. Former rebel states are readmitted into the Union and send elected officials, some of which served in the Confederacy.
The Department of Justice is created in 1870 to help enforcement of civil rights.
The newly free African-American develop Black institutions such as Black Churches and Black Masons, as well as colleges.
Starting in 1871, Congress investigates racial violence through the “KKK hearings”. It resulted in an 8000-page report and legal action by Congress.
The Enforcement act and the KKK Acts are passed to address racial violence.
General Lee dies in 1872, propping up the “Lost Cause” myth.
Rift in the Republican Party and end of the Reconstruction Era
For the 1872 elections sees a rift between “Radical Republicans” and “Liberal Republicans” who endorsed Horace Greely.
In 1875, Congress passes the Civil Rights Acts.
The Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson greenlights the principle of “separate but equal”, legalizing racial discrimination.
In the 1890s, most Southern states organize constitutional conventions cementing the Jim Crow system of racial discrimination.
The period witnesses many advances for African-Americans but ended with most of the gains lost at the end of the period.
