Ap Us History Dbq Research Paper

Following the closure of the Civil War, America and primarily the former Confederacy were tasked with the problem of how they were going to efficiently bring back thousands of former slaves back into the union and convert them into full-pledged American citizens. Adding on to the problems faced during presidential and radical reconstruction from 1865 to 1877, many people including President Johnson feared the rise of the blacks in politics. Due to the new rise in population, southern senators believed that blacks were not equipped for political equality and that suffrage would be destructive to the government by upsetting the balance of power between the republicans and democrats. Such notion that the blacks were inferior and should be treated

For example, although blacks were able to vote, many states found loopholes to this concept by making a requirement that citizens had to read and explain the Constitution to carry out their ballot. This was problematic and unjust as the southern states did not provide a good enough schooling for black children and continued them to be illiterate and therefore unable to vote. Adding on to the corruption of the state governments, many former rebels formed riots and mass violence due to unrest from these amendments as they feared that the white people’s roles in society were decreasing and the lower-class Negros were uprising and that Congress was overstepping their federal authority. Gangs including the KKK attacked several black citizens directly and institutions and were highly against African-Americans voting, holding office, and having political power. Although Congress did take action to stop the violence, such as in the Anti-Klan Act, members used fear from the public to not testify against them and continued on to terrorize the