HIST 1312 1st EditionExam # 2 Study Guide Lectures: 8 - 13 Reconstruction - 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution o 13th: Abolished slaveryo 14th: “All persons born in the US were citizens and were to be given full and equal benefit of all laws,” i.e. blacks became citizenso 15th: Blacks were given the right to vote- Andrew Johnson and presidential reconstruction o To Lincoln’s successor, Johnson, fell the task of overseeing the restoration of the Uniono Johnson identified himself as the champion of his state’s “honest yeomen” and a foe of large planters whom he described as a “bloated, corrupted aristocracy”o Since he was a strong defender of the Union, he became the only senator from a seceding state to remain at his post in DCo Lincoln named him military governoro Republicans nominated him for Vice-President as an extending hand to the Southo He lacked Lincoln’s political skills and keen sense of public opiniono He held deeply racist views and believed that Reconstruction had nothing to do with African-Americanso Johnson in May 1865 outlined his plan for reuniting the nationo He issued a series of proclamations that began the period of Presidential Reconstruction (1865-1867)o Johnson offered pardon to nearly all white southerners who took an oath of allegiance Restored political and property rights, except for slaves He excluded Confederate leaders and wealthy planters whose prewar property has been valued at more than $20,000o Most of those who did not agree where later pardonedo Johnson also appointed provisional governors and ordered them to call state conventions, elected by whites alones, that would establish loyal governments in the Southo The conduct of the southern governments elected under Johnson’s program turned most of the Republican North against the president- Radical Republicans and radical reconstructiono When Congress assembled in December 1865, Johnson announced that with loyal governments functioning in all southern states, the nation had been reunitedo In response, Radical Republicans, who had grown increasingly disenchanted with Johnson during the summer and fall, called for the dissolution of these governments and the establishment of new ones with “rebels” excluded from power and black men guaranteed the right to vote o Radicals shared the conviction that union victory created the golden opportunity to institutionalize the principle of equal rights for all, regardless of race- Civil Rights Act of 1875o the Civil Rights Act of 1875: outlawed racial discrimination in places of public accommodation like hotels and theaters - political participation of former slaves o Neither black voting nor black office holding came to an abrupt end in 1877o Nonetheless, political opportunities became more and more restrictedo Not until the 1990s would the number of black legislators in the South approach the level seen during Reconstructiono With black men of talent and ambition turning away from politics, the banner of politicalleadership passed to black women activistso The National Association of Colored Women (1896) – brought together local and regional women’s clubs to press both for women’s rights and racial uplifo By insisting on the right of black women to be considered as “respectable” as their white counterparts, the women reformers challenged the racial ideology that consigned all blacks to the status of degraded second-class citizenso For nearly a generation afer the end of The Reconstruction, despite fraud and violence, black southerners continued to cast ballots in large numberso Despite the limits of these alliances, especially those involving the Populists, the threat of biracial political insurgency frightened the ruling Democrats and contributed greatly to the disenfranchisement movemento Between 1890 and 1906, every southern state enacted laws or constitutional provisions meant to eliminate the black voteso The most popular devices were the poll tax (a fee that each citizen had to pay in order toretain the right to vote), literacy tests and the requirement that a prospective voter demonstrate to election officials an “understanding” of the state constitutiono Six southern states also adopted a “grandfather clause,” exempting from the new requirements descendants of persons eligible to vote before the Civil War (when only whites could cast ballots in the South)o The racial intent of the grandfather clause was so clear that the Supreme Court in 1915 invalidated such laws for violating the 15th Amendmento Numerous poor and illiterate whites also lost the right to voteo Disenfranchisement led directly to the rise of a generation of southern demagogues, who mobilized white voters by extreme appeals to racismo As late as 1940, only 3 percent of adult black southerners were registered to voteo The elimination of black and many white voters, which reversed the nineteenth-century trend toward more inclusive suffrage, could to have been accomplished without the approval of the North and The Supreme Court, both of which gave their approval to disenfranchisement laws, in clear violation of the 14th Amendment- first KKK; violence against former slaveso Ku Klux Klan (KKK) – most notorious secret society Served as a military arm of the Democratic Party in the South Founded in 1866 in Tennessee It was a terrorist organization It committed some of the most brutal criminal acts in American history Klan’s victims included white Republicans, among them wartime Unionists and local officeholders, teachers, and party organizers  But African-Americans – local political leaders, those who managed to acquire land, and others who in one way or another defied the norms of white supremacy – bore the brunt of the violence The bloodiest act of violence during Reconstruction took place in Colfax, Louisiana, in 1873, where armed whites assaulted the town with a small cannon- Hundreds of former slaves were murdered, including fify members of a black militia unit afer they had surrendered- Redeemers o Democrats (mid-1870s) had already regained control of states with substantial white voting majorities o The victorious Democrats called themselves Redeemers, since they claimed to have “redeemed” the white South from corruption, misgovernment, and northern and black controlo In Mississippi (1875) – armed Democrats destroyed ballot boxes and drove former slavesfrom the polls The result