Failure Of Reconstruction Essay

801 Words2 Pages

After the Civil War and during the Radical Reconstruction era, the federal government and local governments passed laws and legislation to assist newly freed blacks, but the success of this legislation varied in bringing effective change to their fiscal status and basic rights. After the Civil War, the United States was trying to put itself back together with the addition of the newly freed slaves. In order to create this new America, laws and social expectations were attempted to make blacks and whites equal, not only in front of the law, but also in social norms. The biggest and most far reaching of these legislations was the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments, which declared clear guidelines for legal treatment and rights for African Americans. State laws were also added that varied by state. These state laws had a larger impact on the social aspects of black integration. The biggest failure of reconstruction was the institutionalized punitive slavery and mistreatment of blacks in the former confederate states. …show more content…

The newly freed slaves still faced extreme prejudice and continued to be consigned to a lower tier of society than whites. With the introduction of the 15th Amendment and black suffrage the freed slaves, in the eyes of the constitution, were equal to whites. However that did not guarantee them the right to vote. A series unfair and unjust local and state laws that targeted blacks, were established in many southern states. These included the Jim Crow laws, which were intended to exclude blacks from voting, by instituting literacy tests or creating other obstacles to voting. Racism and discrimination also excluded blacks from many jobs, from entering into contracts or opening businesses or purchasing

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