Delegates could know be elected to create a new revised state constitution and governments also all southerners would be pardoned accept for high ranking confederate army officers and government officials. Private property would be protected however this did not include slaves. While most of the Republicans in congress at that time supported the president's plane for reconstructions others wanted to punish the confederacy. One of the flaws to the plan was that it only took ten percent of the voters to decide if they wanted back into the Union This made voting no longer a democracy. On July 2 1864 two Radical Republicans Benjamin Wade and Henry Winter Davis wrote the Wade Davis Bill.
Oh, and lets not forget the KKK (if that falls into this category; I think it does) who harassed, intimidated, and killed black people. They basically couldn’t escape being tormented. During this period, the south was suffering pretty badly economically. When cotton production slowed significantly during the Civil War, countries that had been deprived of cotton began to grow their own and market prices were cut in half. Banks that loaned to the Confederate government could not collect their debts.
Jim Crow Laws had a major influential impact on the United States during its time period due to its cruel ways. Jim Crow Laws were a system of racial apartheid laws dominant in the South beginning in the 1890s continuing for three quarters of a century. The laws affected everyday life, separating Whites and African Americans by posting signs to where either ethnicity could go to school, restrooms, drinking fountains, buses, restaurants, and more. Jim Crow Laws claimed to have treated African Americans the same as Whites through the quote “separate but equal”. Although the laws abided by that particular quote it was visible that African American public facilities low grade quality wasn’t nearly comparable to those of Whites.
When these soldiers left in 1877, many state governments chose to persecute black people and limit their rights. Despite the laws of the federal government, they soon took away black people’s rights to vote. Last but not least the systems of sharecroppers spent more than their share was worth and fell heavily into
Birmingham, Alabama was one of the most tightly segregated cities at the time (“Alabama”). There were racial segregation laws called Jim Crow Laws enacted between 1876-1965. They separated black and white schools, forbade interracial marriages, and had restaurants and stores that only accepted white citizens. They also had separate hospitals, parks, army troops, and African Americans couldn’t even walk on the same sidewalks as the white people (“Racism in the 1930s”). Not soon after, trains and buses started reserving seats for white citizens forcing blacks to
For white Southerners, keeping blacks away from the ballot box was crucial. Blacks were a large percent of the population and especially in the deep South, a black voting block could change the power structure. The vote was the key to official power and the perquisites of power. A Voter Education Project was begun in 1962 and met serious and even violent resistance. A black who tried to register in Mississippi was shot at by a white.
During the fall and winter of 1838 and 1839, the Cherokees were forcibly moved west by the United States government. Approximately 4,000 Cherokees died on this forced march, which became known as the "Trail of Tears." The Choctaws and Chickasaws began their removal to the west without force by the Government. In 1836, Creeks who clung to their homes and refused the “voluntary” removal ran the risk of having their land taken and were then removed with force. The majority of the Seminole tribe in Florida were eventually forced out, but only after a seven year war between 1835 and 1842 cost the Government over $20 million.
However, many white people did not want to send their children to school with African Americans so they either moved or had a protest. In Tennessee and Texas, more than 2% of black students enrolled in integrated schools. These were the only two southern states that had integrated schools in 1964. In Section 402, the Commissioner of Education can conduct a survey and tell the President if there was any lack of available of equal education (“Civil Rights Act of 1964”). Therefore, the president could intervene and fix any problems if there were any.
THE FAILURE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION PLAN The Reconstruction was the time following the Civil War during the years of 1865-1877 in which the previously seceded southern states were readmitted back into the Union. This was done gradually through plans drawn by both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. The death of ‘Honest Abe’ Lincoln and his Ten-Percent Plan was a catalyst for the events of the post-Civil War with millions of freedmen and poor farmers that were suffering under the wrath of the economic struggles for survival. The Presidential Reconstruction Plan was headed first by Abraham Lincoln with his successor, Andrew Johnson taking control of the stand later on with a weak front towards southern punishment. After that, Congress held the power to influence the American macrocosm of its society but internal shifting of power created made Congress into a veritable seesaw.
However, racial discrimination continued after the war. The Southern legislatures, former confederates, passed laws known as the black codes, which severely limited the rights of blacks and segregated them from whites. They were separated in schools, theaters, taverns, and other public places. Congress quickly responded to these laws in 1866 and seized the initiative in remaking the south. Republicans wanted to ensure that while remaking the south, freed blacks were made viable members of society.