During the reconstruction era through to the Progressive era much had changed for the African Americans. After the assassination of President Lincoln (April 14, 1865) President Andrew Johnson continued the “ten percent plan”. The African Americans wanted land, voting rights and wanted to be educated which had been denied to them for centuries, they were considered to be economically and racially inferior compared to the whites. During the years of 1867 to 1870 the African Americans were able to increase their amount of social power. However with this increase of power came a group of southerners led by an ex-confederate forming the Ku Klux Klan in 1867.
It remained a small social/ fraternal organization primarily focused on Georgia until 1921 when a national recruiting drive was initiated. This incarnation of the KKK became a formal fraternal organization with both state and national structure. It was at this time, due to the overwhelming number of new members, the national headquarters for the Ku Klux Klan moved to Dallas, TX (Texas State Historical Assoc.). While the first version of the KKK had been formed to intimidate and control blacks (and those that supported them), the “new” Klan was as equally opposed to Jews, Catholics, anarchists, and generally anyone not considered “white, Anglo-Saxon, and
It threw many people together from various backgrounds who might not have met if not for the war.- Working class and middle class, black and white, different religions and ethnic groups. The African Americans fought in the war for their country and believed that their contribution to the war should get them recognized as American citizens. They were recognized as heroes, but couldn’t be served in restaurants back home. In the UK, it is popularly believed that for the first time, wealthy middle class country dwellers actually got to see the state of poor town children who were evacuated out of the town because of threat of bombing. Women, also, had been forced to do former men's work: munitions, farming, factory work etc.
Midnight Rangers: Costume and Performance in the Reconstruction-Era Ku Klux Klan. Parsons, Elaine Frantz Journal of American History, Dec2005, Vol. 92 Issue 3, p811 The Ku Klux Klan was first created in a town called Pulaski in Tennessee around 1865. It was formed by veterans of the Confederate Army. Basically they were a hate group that tried to get their group to be known.
Lincoln’s election as a president in 1860 triggered the Southerners decision to secede believing that Lincoln would restrict their rights to own slaves. Archer Jones said, “Fearful of the intentions toward slavery of the first republican administration, seven deep Southern states form a new government, the Confederate States of America” (1). When the South fired upon the federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter, in Charlestown, South Carolina, this event led Lincoln to act against rebels and that’s how began a costly four year struggle(1-2). Although several Confederate victories were scored during the early years of the War, South had to eventually lose the War in front of the richest state, North..
During the years that lead to the United States Civil War, the embroilment over slavery became not only a social controversy, but also a legal and political one. Supporters, and non-supporters of slavery each looked to the American constitution as well as the predominant culture of the time for direction in handling this matter. One person whom established their landmark works on this was Frederick Douglas, an emancipated slave, who fought relentlessly for the abolishment of slavery. In 1852, Frederick Douglas was allowed to speak his thoughts at the July 4th celebration. In his speech, he made it known that he despised the treatment of the Black slaves, as well as the irony and hypocrisy that followed.
Secession for Slavery Brett Kovel Teed Hist 111 10-16-13 Nearly 155 years after the end of the Civil War, new questions of why the Confederate States seceded have arisen amongst the historical and national communities. Was secession from the Union because of slavery or because of a constitutional right? According to General Bradley T. Johnson,” every lover of constitutional liberty, liberty controlled by law, all over the world begins to understand that the war was not a war waged by the South in defense of slavery, but was a war to protect liberty won and bequeathed by free ancestors.” Now, General Bradley said this in 1896, nearly 31 years after the conclusion of the Civil War. It could be that he, like
One of the major turning points in America’s history after the civil war was the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. The president’s death changed the course of a country that was trying to rebuild itself after the war. During the Reconstruction in Lincoln’s time he ordered amnesty and that the south should be rebuilt, he also planned to end the hatred of the many black people that were now free. Lincoln planned to pardon any southerner who would swear allegiance to the Union and the United States Constitution. Within this plan he wanted to let the Confederate states back into the Legislature.
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.
The American Civil War 1861 to 1865 was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ("the Confederacy"); the other 25 states supported the federal government called the Union. After four years of warfare, mostly within the Southern states, the Confederacy surrendered and slavery was outlawed everywhere in the nation. Issues that led to war were partially resolved in the Reconstruction Era that followed, though others remained unresolved. As African Americans we should know the history of the civil War and what he has really done for us.