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Reconstruction
The Reconstruction Period
• Reconstruction is the name given to the period of American history after the civil war.
• It is also known as the “Tragic Era,” as blacks did not fully benefit from their freedom
The Reconstruction Period
• 14th Amendment was in 1866, which granted blacks equal civil rights
• 15th Amendment was in 1870, which granted blacks the right to vote
Voting Rights3 ways that black Americans were stopped from voting:A. Poll tax: A tax on every person that many poor
blacks could not afford to pay. B. Literacy Tests: People had to explain the meaning
of a legal document in order to qualify to vote. Many blacks could not read and those who could almost always failed it because the tests that were given to them were more difficult
C. Grandfather Clause: If your grandfather was a slave, you lost the right to vote
Reconstruction
• State land in the South was opened up to black settlers
• The Freedmen’s Bureau (1865) operated hospitals and schools for blacks.
Sharecropping
• Many blacks did not want to work for wages because it kept them under the direction of whites and reminded them of slavery
• A new agricultural system known as sharecropping emerged
Sharecropping
• Plantation-owners broke up their estates into small parcels of land for sharecropping
• In return for seed and equipment, the sharecropper would give the landowner a 1/3 or ½ of his crop
• They could never raise enough cash to buy their own land and equipment, which trapped them into debt and poverty
Black Codes
• Southern rules
• Blacks could not own guns
• They could only own property in the ‘black’ part of town (less desirable areas).
• Not allowed to testify in court
• They could be arrested for being rude to whites or for not having a job.
Black Convicts
The Ku Klux Klan
W.A.S.P
•W = White•A = Anglo•S = Saxon•P = Protestant
KKK
• Formed in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1865.• A white underground terrorist group• Most of the leaders were former members
of the Confederate Army and the first Grand Wizard was Nathan Forrest, a general during the American Civil War.
• They wanted revenge for the defeat of the South
KKK
• The group adopted the name Ku Klux Klan from the Greek word kuklos, meaning circle, and the English word clan.
KKK
• They became known as the Invisible Empire as it grew and spread rapidly
KKK
• Many important politicians, officials and even police officers supported them
• Their main objective was to ensure white supremacy
• It was a campaign of terror: they stole and destroyed black crops; stopped them from voting; threats of violence and murder
• It was outlawed in 1872, but it emerged again in the early 20th Century and is still active today
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Lynching
• When black people were accused of crimes (most were innocent) and were hanged and burned
Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow Laws
• Jim Crow was a character in a 1828 song that was made popular by a white comedian, Thomas (Daddy) Rice
• This song made fun of black people
• The term Jim Crow was then used for a set of laws that were passed by the Southern States
Jim Crow
"Weel about and turn aboutAnd do jis so,Eb'ry time I weel aboutAnd jump Jim Crow."
Jim Crow
• These laws discriminated against blacks and established segregation
• Segregation meant that black people were kept separate from whites
• Blacks were not allowed to use the same public facilities as whites and were treated as 2nd class citizens
Jim Crow Laws
• Homer Plessey, a black man, challenged a Louisiana railroad company because they made him sit in a ‘coloured only’ carriage
• The Supreme Court supported the railroad company and in 1896 declared the laws legal
• This allowed the Southern States to make up more laws
Jim Crow Laws
• Marriage between blacks and whites was illegal in some states
• They were not allowed to use the same hotels, theatres and restaurants as whites
• There were black only carriages on trains and they had to sit in the back of buses
Jim Crow Laws
• There was segregation in the armed forces
• There were separate residential areas and schools
• The American Red Cross kept black people’s blood segregated in blood banks until the 1940s.