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Reconstruction and Jim Crow
* After the Civil War (1851-1865), the defeated
Confederate states in the south needed to be
readmitted to the Union of the United States. The
south had to follow rules known as:
* Reconstruction: from 1865-1877, this was the
period of rebuilding in the south after the war in
which the federal government gave the states
terms for re-joining the Union.
Terms of Reconstruction
* Southern states had to construct a new
government
* Had to allow African Americans to serve in state
legislatures
* Agree to terms of Civil War Amendments:
* 13th Amendment - freed former slaves
* 14th Amendment - rights of citizenship
* 15th Amendment - rights of voting for African
American males
Help from the
North
* In 1865, the North
helps to establish the
Freedmen’s Bureau
* The Freedmen’s Bureau helped to assist former
slaves and poor whites by:
* distributing food and clothing
* setting up hospitals, schools, industrial
institutes, and teacher-training centers
Resistance
* Most southerners opposed Reconstruction in
various ways.
* Black codes were discriminatory laws passed by
southern states that severely restricted African
Americans’ lives by prohibiting blacks from
* carrying weapons
* serving on juries
* testifying against whites
* marrying whites
* traveling without permits
* owning land
Resistance, cont.....Ku Klux Klan:
* Began as a social organization for former Confederate
soldiers
* Goal was to restore white supremacy
* Used violence to prevent African Americans from voting
* They opposed Reconstruction
Resistance, cont....Jim Crow
Laws
* Under the power of the 10th Amendment, southern
states created Jim Crow laws that separated/segregated
white and black people in public and private facilities.
* Jim Crow laws were a direct attack on the 14th
Amendment