After the American Civil War ended in 1861, the government wanted to reconstruct the nation. Their goals for the reconstruction were to unify the nation, rebuild the economy, and abolish slavery. I believe it was possible to reconstruct successfully, however, there were some failures. the first intentions were unification. During Civil War, President Lincoln and congressional leaders were already thinking about how to reintegrate the south back into the union.
African American Rights During Reconstruction By Dane Worthington Hour 7 Advanced Social Studies How many African Americans in the 1800s do you think thought that Reconstruction made them equal to White American citizens? Reconstruction was the process in which Southern states were reintegrated into the Union. During Reconstruction African Americans were given rights were supposed to have them protected by the United States military.
"Pursuant to this reasoning, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, arguing that the abolition of slavery also authorized them to prohibit racial discrimination in contracts, property, and rights in court". (From Racial ... Amendment, Randall) A century later, the Court officially held the Civil Rights Act as an end to racial prejudice and authorized them to prohibit racial discrimination in contracts, property, and rights in court. When Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1875 prohibiting racial discrimination inpublic accommodations, Justice Harlan said that places of public accommodation such as inns, are required to be open to all and that public discrimination was an incident of slavery.
Annabelle Wintson Bower History 8A March 12, 2018 Title Although the slavery was abolished in 1865, the rights given to African Americans were not nearly equal to those of white Americans. After slavery was abolished, inequality in American society ran high, and many laws were put in place to restrict the rights and abilities of African Americans. Some laws include the Jim Crow Laws (1870 to 1950s) and the Supreme Court Ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that ruled that there could be “separate but equal” facilities and services for people of color and white Americans.
Despite the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, the southern state legislatures passed their own laws to continuously oppressing the blacks because they believed in their white supremacy. For example, they passed the Jim Crow Laws in the late of 19th century, that was right after the Reconstruction time in which the laws separated and prohibited freed blacks from sharing public areas and transportation. Because of many disadvantages, black people started to fight back the unjust law system and demanded to be treated equally even though it was not an easy task because of the legality of racial discrimination. For example, the Supreme Court set its ruling in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1892 that protect state racial isolation and the policy of “separate but equal” with the vote 8-1. In the argument of the majority, Justice Henry Billings Brown affirmed the distinction of race cannot be eliminated, and therefore, they cannot stay at the same place as the Fourteenth Amendment’s suggestion.
In 1883, the Supreme Court struck down the 1875 act, ruling that the 14th Amendment did not give Congress authority to prevent discrimination by private individuals." As a result of their color, colored people were not allowed to go to the same places as whites because white people thought that they were going to cause trouble based on usage of state. The adoption of any statue by any state was prohibited.
The Reconstruction Era of American history was plagued by many problems. One of the most important problems being the recently released from slavery Freedmen. Freedmen were in a tricky situation in which they had just been released from their owner and had nowhere to go, but the Federal Government made many successful attempts to help them out. The Government helped alleviate all the problems Freedmen had from their finances to basic needs and rights, and in doing so, made the period of reconstruction more helpful than harmful for Freedmen. The events of reconstruction were helpful to freedmen as they were not only freed from slavery, they were given rights directly from the federal government.
To say the time period following the Civil War in the United States involved a lot of change would be a understatement. Between the years 1870 and 1900 the people of the United States lived through a period of great change. Not only did they witness technological advances that would change their daily lives, they also saw new laws and organizations formed. All of this was done in hopes of improving the country. Many of these changes came about because of the type of businesses that were formed.
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 gave freedmen, and white men the same rights and legal protection, regardless of different laws. Though the bill said that blacks could serve on juries, the bill did not provide the means for enforcement. Although these acts were no longer enforced, they served as a model for the civil rights acts passed in the twentieth century. The South used different laws called black codes. These codes were like another type of slavery that would place whites higher than blacks, instead of everyone being equal.
After the Civil War, between the years, 1865 through 1870 the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments was adopted by the United States. The United States abolished slavery, providing equal protection for freed slaves, and prohibited discrimination of colored voters. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments granted former slaves the freedom to pursue happiness, but in 1868, the “separate but equal” doctrine kept these amendments from bearing fruit. For nearly a century the “separate but equal” doctrine promoted segregation, and the Supreme Court it was constitutional to keep blacks and whites separate as long as they had equal rights to education, public transportation, and restrooms. However, the definition of equality in the south was very vague and ambiguous.
The South killed Reconstruction most by their resistance against the North. Reconstruction started after the Civil war between 1865-1876. During the Civil War, the North and South battled, (The North won) and the South laid in ruins. The United States was willing to let the South back in under some conditions, and that marked the day Reconstruction started. During the Reconstruction era, the South resisted the North’s help and Reconstruction died.
Furthermore, Jim Crow laws protected the practice of segregation. Managers of many businesses refused to serve African Americans. According to John Lewis, author of Walking in the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, Fueling this wave of racial ill-treatment was the U.S. Supreme Court 's ruling in the Civil Rights Cases (1883) that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was unconstitutional. The Court now held that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited unequal treatment by state authorities but not by private businesses.
The Civil Rights Act may have only pushed for desegregation of public facilities, but it completely changed how the government viewed racial equality (1964, para. 59). This act set in motion a series of events that would eventually equalize minorities in the United States. Many whites continued intentionally divisive practices through a loophole that was quickly closed with the Fair Housing Act of 1968. In addition to outlawing selling houses based on segregation it also increased the government’s ability to prosecute violent crimes associated with prejudice (Fair Housing, 1968, Section 901, para. 2). Such a law was necessary because formerly the government could not actually prosecute crimes other than on the basis
Civil liberties combine freedoms and protections like due process of law and the right to free speech. On the other hand, civil rights prohibit discrimination under the law on the basis of race, gender, disability status, or other demographic characteristics. While both civil rights and civil liberties take up important places in American politics, they emerged along essentially different paths. Since the Framers wrote the constitution the ideas of civil rights have changed greatly. The Fourteenth Amendment specially states that a state could not deny any person within jurisdiction equal protection of the laws.
It is known that during the Jim Crow era where whites were to be respected and blacks were to be put down as lesser people, relationships between the two races would be extremely dangerous for both sides. However, this way of structure for the society was absolutely false as it had completely gone against what the amendments had put in place for citizens of the United States of America. For example, the 14th amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” This clearly shows that every living person on the planet earth is to be treated equally with just laws that restrict them in no way.
