Reconstruction Dbq

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The Reconstruction Era that followed the Civil War was created to represent a period of political, economical, and social reconstruction of the Northern Union and the eleven Confederate states of the South. Though the conclusion the Civil War and commencement of the Reconstruction Era represented the conclusion of slavery throughout the United States, it did not guarantee African Americans racial equality and freedom from prejudice and segregation in Southern states of the U.S. The few advancements during the Reconstruction Era, such as the establishments of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments failed to out weigh the extreme segregation caused by the early Black Codes and Jim Crow laws , gruesome violence derived from lynching Among the many solutions of racial inequality, African American mutual aid and benefit societies were created. For instance, The National Negro Business League that was established by Booker T. Washington in 1900 aided black-owned businesses and eventually flourished into a multitude of branches by 1907. Mary Ovington founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACp) in 1909, which worked toward abolishing segregation and discrimination and gain civil rights for African Americans. The NAACP was a vital stepping stone toward the Civil Rights Movement of 1955 because it publicly emitted the message of racial equality to various crowds of people, accumulated many members over the course of a decade, and solved racial issues throughout the Jim Crow era. The commencement of the National Urban League also worked to improve job opportunities and housing for blacks citizens (Cayton et al 567-568.) The societies and aids that contributed to the dawning of the Civil Rights movement in 1955 fought for racial equality and led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, or gender and eventually established the Voting Act of 1965 that banned The constant efforts and struggles of African Americans against Jim Crow laws, hate groups, social injustice, and racial bias prevailed and led to the Civil Rights Movement that has shaped our contemporary world. The struggle of African Americans to gain equal rights in a society dominated by conservative, white culture and prejudice along with the endeavor of acquiring the constitutional right to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, can safely place Jim Crow laws in archive of American

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