Reconstruction: Success or Failure

1220 Words5 Pages
Due to all the deaths, violence, and hardship that my fellow brothers and sisters have endured, Reconstruction has left African Americans everywhere with a bad taste in their mouths. Considering the circumstances, if you look around and compare the before and after of Reconstruction, you will notice that the achievements and advances made by African Americans are astonishing. The only downside is that it created white supremacy-minded organizations, which caused a lot of unnecessary African American blood to be shed. While many people today see Reconstruction as a short-lived success, or even failure for that matter, I see it as a major accomplishment for many key reasons. These reasons are that it has enabled the construction of black communities, it brought education to many African Americans, it brought African Americans into politics, it ratified the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, and it gave us a taste of what it means to be free. Reconstruction helped bring African Americans together socially through churches and public schools. Back in the slave days, a social life was non-existent and you were lucky to work on the same plantation as your family. Although it is still scary to go outside for many blacks, we have the option of living with our families and loosening our chains to leave as we please, which was unheard of twenty years ago. Black churches have made it possible for black communities to come together, which has been very beneficial when forming organizations and networking. However, the importance of black churches goes beyond the social and worship aspect. The church plays a huge role in solving social issues in the black communities. They often send out missions to newly freed slaves and teach them how to read, write, and provide job training. They have already actively taught tens of thousands of freedman literacy and have raised a substantial
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