The Reconstruction era was the North’s attempt to bring the South back into the Union. The Union placed troops in the South to enforce the laws regarding equal treatment of African Americans. The Reconstruction failed because after the troops left, the South went back to the way it was before, if not worse.
After the Civil War, the South was being brought back into the Union. They needed to obey the laws of the Union, including the right to vote for all people regardless of race, culture, or previous condition of servitude. However, President Andrew Johnson let the southern states continue to govern themselves and southern states created black codes to restrict voting rights of African Americans. They did not directly restrict the right to …show more content…
The KKK and Red Shirts were such groups. These groups used violence to intimidate African Americans and were successful in doing so, and white supremacy became part of the South. Plessy vs Ferguson was a court case during the Reconstruction Era in 1896. Plessy was arrested for sitting in a seat while on a train in New Orleans. This seat was designated for white people only. He was arrested even though he was only ⅞ white, meaning he had one great-grandparent who was African American. He went to court with confidence, but he was shocked when Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” was fair, and was not a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment requiring equal protection to all. His argument was if everything was equal, then it wouldn’t have to be segregated. The Black Codes and Pig Laws were were designed to criminalize black people. These laws made it almost impossible to not be under violation of some law. It would was illegal for a farm worker to walk beside a railroad, to speak loudly in the presence of white women, to sell farm produce after dark, and it was also illegal to be unemployed, according to the vagrancy statutes. Of course, these laws were only enforced on the black population. Not only would these laws scare the black population away from the laws they have recently earned, but also put them back into
After the Civil War, the South was being brought back into the Union. They needed to obey the laws of the Union, including the right to vote for all people regardless of race, culture, or previous condition of servitude. However, President Andrew Johnson let the southern states continue to govern themselves and southern states created black codes to restrict voting rights of African Americans. They did not directly restrict the right to …show more content…
The KKK and Red Shirts were such groups. These groups used violence to intimidate African Americans and were successful in doing so, and white supremacy became part of the South. Plessy vs Ferguson was a court case during the Reconstruction Era in 1896. Plessy was arrested for sitting in a seat while on a train in New Orleans. This seat was designated for white people only. He was arrested even though he was only ⅞ white, meaning he had one great-grandparent who was African American. He went to court with confidence, but he was shocked when Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” was fair, and was not a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment requiring equal protection to all. His argument was if everything was equal, then it wouldn’t have to be segregated. The Black Codes and Pig Laws were were designed to criminalize black people. These laws made it almost impossible to not be under violation of some law. It would was illegal for a farm worker to walk beside a railroad, to speak loudly in the presence of white women, to sell farm produce after dark, and it was also illegal to be unemployed, according to the vagrancy statutes. Of course, these laws were only enforced on the black population. Not only would these laws scare the black population away from the laws they have recently earned, but also put them back into