Sketching Out the End of
Reconstruction
Enough is Enough
Four Reasons For End
of Reconstruction
1)
2)
3)
4)
General Amnesty Act of 1872
Grant’s Presidency
Panic of 1873
Recall of troops in 1877
General Amnesty Act of 1872
• South claims US isn’t a democracy
because they cannot elect some
Democrats - Valid Point
• Congress allows former CSA officials to
hold public office
• Southern Democrats take hold of state
positions
Ulysses S. Grant’s
Presidency
• President Grant’s (a Republican)
cabinet is corrupt and scandals break
out
• People move away from Republican
party as a result
• Grant thought of as one of worst
Presidents
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Panic of 1873
• US economy goes into a severe
recession (2 million unemployed of 36
million)
• People increasingly choose Democrats
to try to fix the problems
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U.S. Troops Recalled
• Army that Congress sent to South to
supervise Reconstruction were called
back in 1877 by President Rutherford B.
Hayes
• Effectively ends supervision in the
South
• Southern Democrats (segregationists)
are now in control
When the Federal
Government Left the South
Alone, What Happened?
Blacks‘ dreams for
justice ends at the
close of Reconstruction
at the end of the 19th
century
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WARNING:
You are going to be mad at
the next few slides.
Remember, it is not my fault
- I just tell you about it!
Voting Restrictions
• Poll Tax - a fee to vote (stops poor from voting)
• Literacy Tests - Had to read a paragraph to vote
(Blacks given harder passages)
• Grandfather Clause - You could avoid a poll tax or
literacy test if your grandfather voted prior to 1867.
• Blacks were poor, uneducated, and had no
grandfathers who voted.
• These laws stopped Blacks (Republicans) from
voting, allowing Democrats to gain control
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Segregation
• Jim Crow laws - Laws that forced
separation of whites and Blacks
• Separating the races is called
segregation
• Examples of Jim Crow laws
– Separate areas in theaters, restaurants,
and railcars
– Different schools for whites and Blacks
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Supreme Court on
Segregation
• Several cases went to Supreme Court
saying that segregation and Jim Crow
laws were in violation of the 14th
Amendment
• Court rules the 14th Amendment only
pertains to government actions, so
private people and businesses can
segregate
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Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)
• Supreme Court hears case of Homer Plessy
being arrested for refusing to leave a “whites only”
railcar
• Decision - Arrest is upheld. Furthermore, the
Court states that segregation is legal as long as
there are “Separate but Equal” facilities
• “Equal” means that both Blacks and whites have
access to the object (example - black water
fountain is rusty emitter of dirty water, white
fountain is great = legal - they both have a water
fountain
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Reconstruction
Successes
• Southern economy rebuilt and more
diverse (not just cotton anymore)
• Education in place for both whites and
blacks
• Black colleges and universities created
• Blacks received temporary rights in
government and society
Reconstruction
Failures
• Blacks lose rights at the end of the
Reconstruction Era
• Sharecropping is the main job of blacks in the
South (not much better than slavery)
• Governments in the South run by racist
leaders and supported by courts
• Jim Crow South established - no future for
blacks