Reconstruction During The Reconstruction Era

Historian Eric Foner has referred to the Reconstruction era as “America’s Second Revolution.” Merriam-Webster defines revolution as “a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, especially one made suddenly and often accompanied by violence. Reconstruction was not, in itself, a revolution. Reconstruction marked the beginning of change. However, the change would not fully be manifest until the final Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Recalling again the American Revolution, the era of Reconstruction shares more with the “Shot Heard Round the World” than any other aspect. Speaking in general terms the standing of the average black did markedly increase. There also existed strong opposition to the inclusion of blacks into what was then considered “normal” society. Much of the opposition arose in regards to movements taken by the United States government to secure black freedom. Without the Wade- Davis Bill would there have been any cause for the cruelty of the Jim Crow laws. No discussion about the Reconstruction Era can truly begin without discussing the landmark pieces of legislation that were born during this time. Together these pieces defined the role of the African Americans in society, especially in

The Ku Klux Klan began innocently as a social club for ex-Confederates to reminisce about the glory days of the Antebellum South. Apparently, they grew bored of that rather quickly as they soon turned to terror. The KKK created a growing movement intent upon subjugating blacks. They believed, as seen in Freedom Road, that they needed to regain the hold they had upon the South. The only way they saw to achieve this end was to cow the black back into servitude. They could not exist in a world where they weren’t the dominant peoples. The terror wrought increased exponentially in the wake of the expansion of black education and political