Transcript The End of Reconstruction 1868-1877 Events and Ideas #7 US

The End of Reconstruction
1868-1877
Events and Ideas #7
U.S. History
Unit 1
Essential Question:
What were the factors that contributed to the
end of Reconstruction?
15th Amendment
 Ratified in 1870.
 The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the United States or by
any state on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude.
 The Congress shall have power to enforce this article
by appropriate legislation.
 Women’s rights groups were furious that they were
not granted the vote!
15th Amendment
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYSEBne
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Blacks in Southern Politics
 Blacks could register and vote in 1867
 Went from slaves to legislators and administrators
in nearly all levels of government
 Collation of Northerners, Southern-born poor
whites and Blacks created Republican governments
in the Southern states
Black & White Political Participation
Enforcement Act of 1870
or First Ku Klux Klan Act
• Presidential authority to enforce the 1st section of the
15th Amendment
• Those who tried to make Blacks give up their right to
vote were rebelling against the United States
• Established penalties for interfering with any persons
right to vote
• Authorized the President to employ the army to uphold
the act
Beginning of the KKK
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMGeuU
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The Enforcement Act of 1871
 Made state officials liable in federal
court for depriving Blacks of their civil
rights or equal protection
 Outlawed KKK intimidation tactics and
made them a federal offense
 Prohibited those complicit in
conspiracies to serve on juries related
to Klan activities
 Gave the President the right to
suspend habeas corpus if efforts to
suppress the Klan were ineffective
The Civil Rights Act of 1875
 Equal treatment of public transportation,
accommodations, and public places.
 Prohibited exclusion from jury serviced
 Shortcoming  lacked a strong enforcement mechanism.
 Note: The Supreme Court decided the act was
unconstitutional in 1883
The Civil Rights Act of 1875
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXhBDbc
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Political Downfall of Republicans
• Grant administration is plagued with scandal
• Full Fledged economic depression hits
• 1870’s – Democrats began to regain power in
the South through:
– Intimidation
– Fraud
– Promise to cut taxes
– Accuse Republicans of corruption
Colfax Massacre
• 1872 election of state and local officers in Louisiana
• White Democrats attacked Republican freedmen and
state militia (also Black)
• Most of the freedmen were killed after they
surrendered – 50 more killed later that night
• Estimated killed: 62-153 Blacks – 3 Whites
Colfax Massacre
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trVcK2M
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Democrats take Control
6+ Democratic gain
3-5 Democratic gain
1-2 Democratic gain
1-2 Republican gain
• 1874 Democrats won back control of the House of
Representatives and made significant gains in the Senate
• 1876- Democrats had taken control of all but 3 Southern
state legislatures
Legal Challenges
to the
th
th
14 & 15
Amendment
next
Slaughterhouse Cases
(1873)
 The court offered a narrow definition of the 14th
Amendment.
 It distinguished between national and state
citizenship.
 It gave the states primary authority over citizens’
rights.
 Therefore, the courts weakened civil rights
enforcement!
Bradwell vs. Illinois (1873)
 Myra Bradwell, a female attorney, had
been denied the right to practice law in
Illinois.
 She argued that according to the
14th Amendment, the state had
unconstitutionally abridged her
“privileges and immunities” as a
citizen.
 The Supreme Court rejected her
claim, alluding to women’s
traditional role in the home.
U. S. vs. Reese (1876)
 The Court restricted congressional
enforce the KKK Act.
power to
 The court ruled that the STATE alone could confer
voting rights on individuals.
 The 15th Amendment did NOT guarantee a citizen’s
right to vote, but just listed certain impermissible
grounds to deny suffrage.
 Therefore, a path lay open for Southern states to
disenfranchise blacks for supposedly non-racial
reasons [like lack of education, lack of property,
etc.]
The Abandonment of
Reconstruction
U.S. vs. Cruickshank (1876)
 Louisiana White supremacists accused
of the Colfax Massacre were convicted
under the 1870 Enforcement Acts.
 The Supreme Court held that the
14th Amendment extended the
federal power to protect civil rights
ONLY in cases involving
discrimination by STATES.
 Therefore, discrimination by
individuals or groups were NOT
covered.
Northern Support of
Reconstruction Wanes
 Corruption in the Whitehouse/President Grant
 Panic of 1873 with a 6-year
depression.
 Concern over westward
expansion and Indian wars.
 Monetary issues left over from
Civil War:
 Money issued during the War
 How War bonds should be paid back
the
1876 Presidential Tickets
1876 Presidential Election…
Who Won?
A Political Crisis:
The “Compromise” of 1877
• The deal made in the intensely disputed
1876 Presidential election
• Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from
the South in exchange for the Presidency
• With the removal of the troops, many White
Republican leaders left the South
• The Democrats took over
• Blacks called it “The Great Betrayal”
The New South/the Old South
• For Blacks in the South, the end of
Reconstruction meant the return of the “old
South”
• Many returned to plantations to work for
their old masters
• They worked for wages or became tenant
farmers
• Most could not afford to become
sharecroppers
• Economic circumstances and traditions of
White Supremacy plagued their daily lives
Critical Analysis essay:
Answer the Essential Question:
(minimum 10 sentences)
What were the factors that contributed to the
end of Reconstruction?