Sketching Out the End of Reconstruction

Enough is Enough

Four Reasons For End of

Reconstruction1) General Amnesty Act of 18722) Grant’s Presidency3) Panic of 18734) Recall of troops in 1877

General Amnesty Act of 1872

• South claims US isn’t a democracy because they cannot elect some Democrats - Valid Point

• Congress allows former CSA officials to hold public office

• Southern Democrats take hold of state positions

Ulysses S. Grant’s Presidency

• President Grant’s (a Republican) cabinet is corrupt and scandals break out

• People move away from Republican party as a result

• Grant thought of as one of worst Presidents

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Panic of 1873• US economy goes into a severe recession (2 million unemployed of 36 million)

• People increasingly choose Democrats to try to fix the problems

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U.S. Troops Recalled

• Army that Congress sent to South to supervise Reconstruction were called back in 1877 by President Rutherford B. Hayes

• Effectively ends supervision in the South

• Southern Democrats (segregationists) are now in control

When the Federal Government Left the South Alone, What

Happened?

Blacks‘ dreams for justice ends at the close of

Reconstruction at the end of the 19th century

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WARNING:You are going to be mad at the next few

slides. Remember, it is not my fault - I just tell you about

it!

Voting Restrictions

• Poll Tax - a fee to vote (stops poor from voting)

• Literacy Tests - Had to read a paragraph to vote (Blacks given harder passages)

• Grandfather Clause - You could avoid a poll tax or literacy test if your grandfather voted prior to 1867.

• Blacks were poor, uneducated, and had no grandfathers who voted.

• These laws stopped Blacks (Republicans) from voting, allowing Democrats to gain control

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Segregation• Jim Crow laws - Laws that forced separation of whites and Blacks

• Separating the races is called segregation

• Examples of Jim Crow laws– Separate areas in theaters, restaurants, and railcars

– Different schools for whites and Blacks

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Supreme Court on Segregation

• Several cases went to Supreme Court saying that segregation and Jim Crow laws were in violation of the 14th Amendment

• Court rules the 14th Amendment only pertains to government actions, so private people and businesses can segregate

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Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)• Supreme Court hears case of Homer Plessy being

arrested for refusing to leave a “whites only” railcar

• Decision - Arrest is upheld. Furthermore, the Court states that segregation is legal as long as there are “Separate but Equal” facilities

• “Equal” means that both Blacks and whites have access to the object (example - black water fountain is rusty emitter of dirty water, white fountain is great = legal - they both have a water fountain

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Reconstruction Successes

• Southern economy rebuilt and more diverse (not just cotton anymore)

• Education in place for both whites and blacks

• Black colleges and universities created

• Blacks received temporary rights in government and society

Reconstruction Failures

• Blacks lose rights at the end of the Reconstruction Era

• Sharecropping is the main job of blacks in the South (not much better than slavery)

• Governments in the South run by racist leaders and supported by courts

• Jim Crow South established - no future for blacks