After the Civil War, the destined goal of Reconstruction was to bring southern states back into the Union while protecting the rights of newly freed slaves (about 4 million). The Republican party was responsible for granting African Americans their equal protection under the law for which they fought for in the war. Reconstruction was supposed to peacefully integrate African Americans into society, but it ultimately failed due to President Johnson’s political agenda which allowed state governments in the south to constraint African American's rights and freedom. On the other hand, the Civil Rights Movements was successful to completing the unfinished work of Reconstruction by ending segregation.
Reconstruction arguably started before the end of the Civil War, when President Lincoln introduced a plan for reunification of the United States in 1863, called the 10 Percent Plan. Just 10% of voters for a state had to pledge their loyalty to the Union in order to establish a new state government. The fate of Reconstruction changed when Lincoln was assassinated in April of 1865. After his death, Democratic Vice President Andrew Johnson, a states’-rights supporter and racist from Tennessee, took executive office. Since most southerners were democrats, Johnson was lenient toward them. Johnson’s reconstruction plan pushed southern governments to “void their ordinances of secession, repudiate their Confederate debts, and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment” (American Yawp, Reconstruction, Section II). Furthermore, Johnson pardoned all of white southerners, (except for Confederate leaders and wealthy planters), restoring their political rights and property.
From 1865-1870, Republicans in congress fought for three important amendments to became law. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery. The 14th Amendment established birthright citizenship and equality before the law no matter the race. The 15th Amendment prohibited states from denying people the right to vote based on race. Even before the 15th Amendment, congress gave African American men the right to vote in 1867. New governments controlled by the Republican party rose to power in the south, allowing African Americans for the first time in history to vote and hold public office. For the first time in the south, governments created “statewide systems public education, sought to rebuild the shattered economy, enacted civil rights legislation and tried to protect the rights of black laborers on plantations” (Foner, 50).
But despite these political and civil achievements during Reconstruction, the United States under Johnson had governments in the south that were controlled entirely by white men. They created laws, known as the Black Codes, that limited the freedom of African Americans and force them into cheap labor. The Black Codes “granted former slaves virtually no civil rights and made it a crime for black workers to refuse to sign coercive labor contracts” (Foner, 45). This was basically a form of slavery without actually calling it by name. Many blacks also turned to sharecropping, which was also a legal form of slavery. They had to rent fields of land to work on themselves. By the end of the year, they would give part of their crop to the landowner. Many were left in debt because of this system. African Americans not only had to worry about their jobs, but also opposition from white supremacy groups like the Ku Klux Klan. These groups targeted African Africans and Republican leaders, leading to countless deaths.
Cartoon demonstrates the Democratic party crushing an African American Union veteran who reaches for a ballot box.
Reconstruction eventually came to end and failed when, “northerners abandoned the cause of the formerly enslaved and Democrats recaptured southern politics” (American Yawp, Reconstruction, Section VII). After the panic of 1873, the nation was more focused on resolving economic issues more than anything else. Then with the Corrupt Bargain of 1877, a deal between the political parties was made in which Rutherford B. Hayes would become president. In exchange, the south would take control of southern states and realign their own agenda. This formally ended Reconstruction, allowing the south to be responsible for issues such as racial segregation with the Jim Crow laws, disenfranchisement of black voters, and black unemployment until the mid-twentieth century.
By the 1890s, many southern states had Jim Crow laws, requiring whites and blacks to be socially segregated. African Americans were upset with the Jim Crow laws that ensured racial segregation in the nation and sought to end it. Thus, the Civil Rights Movement (1940s-1960s), sometimes referred to as the “Second Reconstruction”, rose to fight for equal rights of African Americans under the law of the United States.The first step for equality came in 1948 when President Truman issued Executive Order 9981 to end racial segregation in the military. It was the first step of many steps for equality. However, a major breakthrough against segregation came with the decision of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. This case challenged segregation in public schools as a violation of the equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment. It essentially overturned the “separate but equal” ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson and the foundation of Jim Crow law.
A year after Brown v. Board of Education, civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat up in Montgomery. The Montgomery Improvement Association organized to demand the desegregation of the city’s bus system. After a year, the city finally agreed to desegregate buses. After the success of this boycott, African American put the decision of Brown v. Board of Education to the test in the Little Rock Crisis, in which 9 black students volunteered to enter Little Rock’s Central High in Arkansas, hoping to achieve the integration of races in public schools. The governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, opposed integration and closed all the schools in Little Rock in 1958. Although the crisis failed to integrate, the Civil Rights Movement shifted their focus away from school integration to focus more on acquiring voting rights and public accommodations.
With the shift in focus, one of the well-known leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr., started to organize a series of boycotts, sit-ins, and demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. It became known as the Birmingham campaign, in which African Americans nonviolently protested the desegregation of public facilities. It was challenged with police brutality and numerous arrests. The brutal images of the campaign were broadcasted nationwide, motivating President Kennedy to support civil rights legislation that bans racial segregation from public accommodations. Lyndon B. Johnson became president after Kennedy’s assassination and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This legislation “prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, made employment discrimination illegal” (National Archives). Then in 1965, the Voting Rights Act guaranteed equal voting rights for African Americans, especially in the south. These achievements that should have been done during Reconstruction, were now accomplished.
The iconic March on Washington for equal rights in August 1963
Although there were some advancements during Reconstruction, it failed to integrate African Americans to society. The south was able to redeem itself and force Jim Crow laws in their states by the end of Reconstruction due to the lenient policy of Andrew Johnson . African Americans would suffer under the Jim Crow laws that the Reconstruction era allowed to happen. With the help from federal courts and nonviolent protest groups, the Civil Rights Movement completed the goal of ending legal segregation under the law. Although the movement didn’t fix everything as discrimination against African Americans continued in the nation, it went beyond the work of Reconstruction to give African Americans what they fought for a long time, equality.
Works Referenced:
1. American Yawp
2. Foner, Eric. Britannica. "Reconstruction"
3. History, Art & Archives
4. National Archives
5. Eric Foner's Freedom's Dream Deferred
file:///Users/nicolasgaray/Downloads/Foner_Freedom's%20Dream%20Deferred.pdf
Pictures:
6. Tennessee Encyclopedia
7.NAACP
8. The Ohio State University
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