RECONSTRUCTION ERA

US HISTORY A

THEME # 2

President Andrew Johnson Homer Plessy

DESTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH

Americans faced the challenge that the country needed to be rebuilt.

The war destroyed lots of property

The Thirteen Amendment-end of slavery.

The slaves were happy and excited to be free.

LAWS TO REBUILD THE SOUTH

Congress passed laws to help rebuild the South

Bureau of Refugee, Freedman, and Abandoned Lands (Freedman’s Bureau) led whites and blacks to get back on their feet

The bureau helped with establishing hospitals and provided medical care

Schools and colleges were established to assist the people.

LAWS TO REBUILD THE SOUTH

Reconstruction Plans by President Johnson:

written a new state constitution

elect a new state government

repeal its act of succession agree not pay Confederate

debts

Honest conviction is my courage; the

Constitution is my guide.

LAWS TO REBUILD THE SOUTH

ratified 13 Amendment Black Codes allowed the Blacks to

marry, own property and sue but they couldn’t vote

Amendment 13 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except

as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,

shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

LAWS TO REBUILD THE SOUTH

Civil Rights Act nullified the black codes Fourteenth Amendment states all

blacks were citizens A new reconstruction plan by Congress: A new constitution that supported

black suffrage elect a new state government

PRESIDENT ANDREW JOHNSON PUSHED FOR NEW LAWS

ratify the 14 Amendment apply readmission President Johnson was impeached

because he enforced the Tenure of Office Act by firing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton

ratify the 14 Amendment

Amendment 14 All persons born or naturalized

in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

CHANGES IN THE SOUTH

Three types of voters moved to the South” Northern Teachers, Freedman’s bureau agents business people (carpetbaggers) make lots of

money Southerners would didn’t support the rebellion Ulysses Grant was elected to President Fifteen Amendment a person’s right to vote

((without color, race or slavery) Public schools and hospitals were established Women right to own property

Amendment 15The right of citizens of the United States to

vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on

account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

RISE OF THE KKK

Ku Klux Klan and Knights of the White Camelia harassed African-American voters and their supporters.

The secret societies were violent burned crosses and used fear and horror

These groups wanted white rule Enforcement Act tried to protect the

African-Americans

SEGREGATION POLICIES African-Americans had to

pay a poll tax or literacy test to vote.

Grandfather Clause -if your grandfather voted then you were able to vote.

Jim Crow laws- separation of blacks and whites in public areas ( segregation laws).

Many African-Americans were lynched.

SEGREGATION POLICIES

Plessy v. Ferguson(1896)Separate but equal is legal

The object of the Fourteenth Amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality

of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been

intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to

enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the

two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either."

Homer Plessy

CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER Ida B. Wells- Barnet

tried to stop the lynching.

Brave men do not gather by thousands to torture and murder a

single individual, so gagged and bound he cannot make even feeble resistance or defense.

CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER Booker T. Washington

established Tuskegee Institute to educate the African-Americans

Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better

to be alone than in bad company.

CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER William E.B. Bois

urged African-Americans to fight injustice and to stop discrimination and encourage equalityAn American, a Negro... two souls,

two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings;

two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone

keeps it from being torn asunder.