
Violent opposition plagued the South
TERRORIST GROUPS IN THE SOUTH
 KKK most active terrorist group
 Members included planters, merchants,
and poor white farmers and laborers
 KKK wanted to restore old political and
social order to the south

Main target was African Americans
 Both blacks and whites were terrorized
by threats, house burnings, and more
 KKK beat Freedmen’s Bureau teachers,
men and women
 A member of Congress from AK, and 3
GA legislators were murdered
 KKK also attacked African Americans
they thought were too economically
successful

State governments were unable to
control the violence
 Congress passed three ENFORCEMENT
ACTS in 1870 & 1871
 Laws set a heavy penalty, including jail,
for anyone attempting to prevent a
qualified person from voting.
 They banned the use of disguise to
deprive any person of rights

The laws allowed the US Army and
federal courts to capture and punish KKK
members
 This effort soon broke the power of the
KKK but other groups would continue to
operate.

SUPPORT FOR RECONSTRUCTION
DECLINES
 White southerners claim the Enforcement
Acts threatened individual freedoms
 Northerners were dismayed that the
army was still required to keep peace in
the south
 Conditions in the south strengthened the
LIBERAL REPUBLICANS

This group split from the party over the
Enforcement Acts and scandals that
plagued the Grant Administration
 Grant was re-elected in 1872
 Radical Republicans helped Democrats
regain control of the House in 1874
 The Republican majority in the Senate
was cut in half
 A 5-year depression began in 1873

By mid-1870s reconstruction was on the
decline
 The main leaders of reconstruction, Rep.
Thaddeus Stevens and Sen. Charles Sumner,
had died
 Supreme Court decisions weakened key
part of the reconstruction program
 1873—Supreme Court ruled in the
SLAUGHTERHOUSE CASES that most civil
rights/freedoms remained under state
control

In US vs. Cruikshank (1873), the Supreme
Court said XIVth Amendment didn’t
empower the federal government to
punish whites for suppressing African
Americans
 In US vs. Reese (1876), XVth Amendment
didn’t protect voting rights that were
denied for reasons other than race

“REDEEMING” THE SOUTH
 As support for reconstruction declined,
southern democrats became stronger
and bolder
 Terrorists publicly threatened, beat, and
murdered Republican candidates
 On election days armed democrats stole
ballot boxes and drove African
Americans from polling places

MS governor asked for federal help but
President Grant refused because he said
the north was tired the south’s problems
 1876—only SC, LA, FL under Republican
control. Democrats controlled the others

THE ELECTION OF 1876
 Southern democrats had a direct impact
on the presidential election of 1876

Ohio Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes (R) vs. NY
Gov. Samuel J. Tilden (D)
 Tilden narrowly won the popular vote
and finished ahead in the electoral
college 184-165.
 Tilden was 1 electoral vote short
 20 electoral votes disputed from OR, SC,
FL, LA
 People claimed voter fraud in these
states

OR’s disputed vote went to Hayes
 Democrats threatened to put Tilden in
the White House by force—”Tilden or
War”
 January 1877—Congress created the
Electoral Commission to solve the crisis
 COMPROMISE OF 1877—Hayes would
become President and the federal
troops were withdrawn from the south

14th & 15th amendments began permanent
change in the South and North
 NEW SOUTH—late 1800s & early 1900s—a
time of industrialization and economic
change
 Supreme Court weakened protections of
the 14th and 15 amendments
 If the Civil War was fought to settle states’
rights, reconstruction showed that it failed
to do so.

Reconstruction intensified the hostility
many white southerners had toward the
Republican party
 1870s-1970s—South was so strongly
Democratic—SOLID SOUTH
 1970s—Republican Party started to
regain the level of support is has today


THE END