Post Reconstruction

Post Reconstruction

a.k.a. After the

Civil War

Civil War Amendments

• Thirteenth

• Fourteenth

• Fifteenth

Amendment XIII• Ended slavery• “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . shall exist within the United States . . . .”

Amendment XIV• Defines citizenship• “All persons born or naturalized in the United States . . . are citizens of the United States . . . .”

Amendment XV• Defines voting• “The right of citizens . . . to

vote shall not be denied . . . by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

Ku Klux Klan

• Started in 1866 by 6 former Confederate soldiers

• Members wore robes and masks to look like the ghosts of dead Confederate soldiers who returned for revenge against enemies of the South.

• Knights of the White Camellia

• kuklos (“circle”).

Black Codes: laws that restricted freedmen rights

• Curfews• Vagrancy laws (not working)• Labor contracts• Land restrictions (forced

living on plantations)

Voting Restrictions• Poll Tax: special fee paid to

vote

• Literacy Tests (read, write, knowledge)

• Property ownership

Grandfather clauses

• Allowed people to vote………….if their grandfather had voted.

1896 Plessy v. Ferguson

--Major setback for Af. Amerc.

--Segregation legal as long as separate facilities provided.

--Leading to the Southern belief of “Separate but equal”

Jim Crow Laws• Developed a segregated South

• This way of life became the “norm” of the South.

• “That is just the way it is”

Examples:

• Schools• Parks• Public bldgs• Hospitals• Transportation

• Public toilets

• Water fountains

• Sections of theaters

The fight back…• The Niagara Movement:

(1905) vowed never to accept “inferiority”, bow to “oppressions”, or apologize “before insult”. W.E.B. Du Bois leader.

• NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: (1909) abolish segregation and discrimination, oppose racism, and gain civil right for African Americans.

• The National Urban League: (1911) improved job opportunities and housing for African Americans.