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Reconstruction
1865-1877
Reconstruction- A time period
after the Civil War when the South
was rebuilt and made part of the
Union again.
During Reconstruction:

Freedmen (former slaves) and AfricanAmericans gained new rights.
– 13th Amendment officially ended slavery
– 14th Amendment granted African-Americans
citizenship
– 15th Amendment gave African-American men
the right to vote.
Ways those rights were denied:
Ku Klux Klan formed; threats and violence
used to prevent southern blacks from
exercising these rights.
 Literacy Tests must be passed in order to
vote.
 Poll taxes must be paid in order to vote.
 Grandfather clause ensures white men will
not have to take the test or pay the tax.

Jim Crow Laws:
Government
supported oppression
of African-Americans.
 “Jim Crow South”

Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896):
Supreme Court case that ruled separate
facilities for whites and blacks were legal.
 “Separate but equal” meant the facilities
(bathrooms, water fountains, schools,
theaters, etc…) had to be equal to each
other in quality and condition.
 Were they equal???

Reconstruction Timeline:
April 9, 1865 The Civil
War Ends
 April 14, 1865
President Abraham
Lincoln is
assassinated.

– John Wilkes Booth
– Andrew Johnson
becomes the new
President.
Timeline cont…
1867 Radical
Republicans vs.
President Johnson
 Reconstruction Act of
1867 passed
 February 1868
President Johnson
Impeached

Impeach:
To accuse an elected official of committing a
crime.
 For a president, the House of Representatives
has the power to impeach. They must get a
majority of members to vote for impeachment.
 If a majority is reached, the Senate is in charge
of the president’s trial.

– 2/3 of Senate needed to convict and remove from
office.
Reconstruction Act of 1867
South divided into five military districts.
 New state constitutions must be written.
 Each southern state must ratify the 14th
amendment.
 African-American men must be allowed to
vote.
 Once these measures are met, the state is
officially part of the union again.

Election of 1868
Freedmen help get
Ulysses S. Grant
elected.
 Grant’s status as Civil
War hero helps him
become popular
president.
 Grant re-elected in
1872.
 Reconstruction ends
in 1877 with President
Hayes.

“To the Polls”, by T.W. Wood
“A Visit From the Old Mistress”
-Winslow Homer