As the Depression of 1873 wore on into the mid-1870s, northern voters became decreasingly interested in southern Reconstruction. With unemployment high and hard currency scarce, northerners were more concerned with their own financial well-being than in securing rights for freedmen, punishing the Ku Klux Klan, or readmitting secessionist states. After Democrats capitalized on these depression conditions and took control of the House of Representatives in 1874, Reconstruction efforts stalled. The Radical Republicans last successful piece of legislation in Congress was the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Unfortunately, the act proved ineffective, as Democrats in the House made sure the bill was unenforceable. The act stated that blacks had to file
Only a small group of politicians supported black suffrage. All were Radical Republicans who emerged during the war. Outnumbered, the Radicals in congress still managed to win broad Republican support for parts of their Reconstruction program, including male enfranchisement. The Reconstruction policy soon became bound to black suffrage, a historic change that originally had few political backing. Presidential Reconstruction took effect in the summer of 1865, but had consequences.
There were major issues in national politics. In 1865 President Abraham Lincon is assassinated and Andrew Johnson now becomes president. Then 13th Amendment is ratified, and its forbids slavery. But that really didn 't change the slavery issue and Black codes were enacted in the south to limit former slaves to become self-sufficient.
The lives of African Americans regressed to their Antebellum states due to a combination of violence and legal action following the end of Reconstruction bringing about a period of violence and anarchy. During the Reconstruction Period, it seemed that Congress and the presence of Federal troops would be enough to rebuild and reform the decimated South. Lincoln’s plan to reintegrate the South was considered lenient and focused on bringing the South back into the Union as quickly as possible. After Lincoln’s death, Congress implemented a series of harsher regulations know as Congressional Reconstruction, which came to an end with the election of President Rutherford B. Hayes in the 1876 election (“America’s” Par. 3).
Following the Civil War and Lincoln 's death, the party began passing several laws under Reconstruction. However, people become disenfranchised when rich Republicans began taking over. Furthermore, these rich Republicans would not push for civil rights and equal protection and left the South to its own devices. After the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt and other Democrats took over major offices. To battle
Republicans were concerned that as the states were re-admitted to the union they would disregard many of these new amendments and acts, and withdraw black suffrage. They decided to add the fifteenth amendment, which denied the states the right to prohibit anyone from voting “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” However, this did not include gender which upset many feminists at the time. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was one of the final congressional reconstruction
While the legislation of the radical Republicans brought much-needed measures of radical equality to America, their enforcement of such measures came at a time when the South was already looking for reasons to resent the Union, and the military action certainly didn't help the concept of remaining on good terms. Corruption under these regimes were rampant as well, in which radical government schemers took advantage of the money provided for new public programs and used it to pad their own wallets. The Ku Klux Klan began because of the backlash from the hastily-passed 15th Amendment and would proceed to beat, threaten, and murder blacks and Republicans alike, creating an atmosphere of fear and a movement that would persist until the 1920s. In the end, the results of Congress's actions served to alienate Republicanism in the South, and the good they attempted to do for freed blacks was ultimately undermined by Southern voting stipulations, governmental corruption, and a Northern disinterest in the plight of African Americans. Lincoln's plan never saw fruition and never had the chance to evolve as necessary; only the bare ideas were in place, and written before the war was even over.
More than six hundred serves as state legislators and sixteen as congressmen. Southern Republicans, reconstruction governments eliminated property qualifications for the vote and abolished the Black Codes. Their state constitutions expanded the rights of married women, enabling them to hold property and wages independent of their husbands. The sought to diversify the economy beyond cotton agriculture and the poured money into railroads and other buildings projects to expand the regions busted economy. Southern Republicans brought the
Many different groups in the United States have fought for their equal rights through civil rights battles. Each one inspiring the next, slowly transforming America into the country it is today. Some of these battles have come a long way, since the beginning of history for a lot, some of which are still in the mist of being fought, some of which made huge improvements yet still haven’t reached full equality. Through the many steps taken in marches, and blood and tears shed though the riots, all these battles though has change the way Americans see one another and their country. Going for the common goal of equality, these civil rights movements have changed America for the greater good.
This brought in era called the “Radical Reconstruction” also called the African American “Golden Age”. This started by Republicans officially won the Congress in 1866 elections. This allowed for Radical Republicans Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Summer were ones that the lead the charge. This movement caused the Radicals and Moderates were able to pass the First Reconstruction Act of 1867 it annulled all of 10 confederate states from the Union except the state of Tennessee and Congress had approve not the president. There were new conditions for readmission which required them to grant African-American men right the vote and ratify 14th Amendment in order to reenter them Union.
Addressing President Biden’s first topic, I believe that the two most important legislative successes of the modern Civil Rights Movement were the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is one of the most critical rights legislations in our country's history. Passing this new law allowed the federal government to withhold funds from public programs that were allowing or practicing segregation. This forced institutions such as schools, and other public or government institutions that receive federal funds to abolish their acts of public segregation.
Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan became prominent in the south. however, this was no longer something reconstruction could help former slaves with. Eventually, Hayes was elected after Johnsons’ impeachment and the Reconstruction era ended. The reconstruction ended in 1877 due to the Compromise of 1877 and the pulling of republicans alongside union troops out of the deep south. though the reconstruction attempted to unify the country back together as one by allowing confederate states into the union under strict conditions, and to help former slaves by granting basic human rights there were still many issues present throughout the
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlaws discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, or national origin. This act helped minorities to more easily defend their rights as Americans and to contest organizations that sought to rob them of those rights. Title II of the act holds that all people shall enjoy public accommodations equally, outlawing places such as restaurants from
One of reasons the confederacy failed was because the U.S. Congress, with Lincoln’s support, proposed the 13th amendment which would abolish slavery in America. Although the confederate peace delegation was unwilling to accept a future without slavery, the radical and moderate Republicans designed a way to takeover the reconstruction program. The Radical Republicans wanted full citizenship rights for African Americans and wanted to implement harsh reconstruction policies toward the south. The radical republican views made up the majority of the Congress and helped to pass the 14th amendment which guaranteed equality under the law for all citizens, and protected freedmen from presidential vetoes, southern state legislatures, and federal court decisions. In 1869, Congress passed the fifteenth amendment stating that no citizen can be denied the right to vote because of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
“The policy of this country ought to be…to nationalize our country, so that we shall love our country,” states Senator John Sherman in Document B. Throughout the years of 1860-1876, several events occurred, that were said to have “amounted in a revolution” over time. Complete succession of South Carolina from the Union in December of 1860 led a trail of states to leave over the course of time, leading to issues for the Union. Equal rights and privileges, and power of the federal government became topics that most often created enormous debates in these chaotic 17 years. The United States had a lack of nationality and obviously there was lack of unity. All of this chaos built up and effected the way America was managed.
Following the deadliest conflict in United States history, the federal government was confronted with the unprecedented task of establishing a modern economic system, settling a new and turbulent society, and rebuilding the ruins of the southern states. The Reconstruction era lasted from January 1, 1865, to March 31, 1877, and encompassed the years following the end of the civil war to the inauguration of President Rutherford B. Hayes. A Republican-controlled Congress imposed martial law, created the Freedmen’s Bureau to protect the newly-granted liberties of former slaves, and overrode a presidential veto to pass the first Civil Rights Act. Approaching these priorities proved to be divisive along political and racial lines; emancipationists called for African-Americans to be granted their full civil rights, moderates like Presidents Lincoln and Johnson wanted the government to treat former Confederates with leniency, and white supremacists like the first generation of the Ku Klux Klan terrorized communities with violence. Reconstruction policy took such a turbulent course and ultimately failed in building the South into a modern society