Reasons For The Failure Of The Reconstruction Era

If someone would ask me my input on the Reconstruction Era, I would tell them that it failed severely. Yes, it unified the nation once again but racism is still a common factor in today’s society. Despite the fact that African Americans gained freedom legally, they still faced problems with fitting into society. Reconstruction focused too much on the rebuilding of the country but not enough on the millions of freed slaves. First reason why I believe that this was an unsuccessful era was because of the failures of both the Presidential Plan and Congressional Plan of Reconstruction. The Ten Percent Plan was a proposal on how to rebuild the South. It received a lot of criticism, especially from the Radical Republicans. They were outraged; they believed that this plan was way too lenient and that it didn’t include any reforms to help the freed slaves. …show more content…
This was called the Civil Rights Movement. Booker T. Washington, who was an author and educator, believe that Blacks should improve themselves mentally by going to school so they can be socially respected by others. Washington then creates Tuskegee Institute which is a college for African Americans. Another Civil Rights advocate was William Edward Burghardt "W. E. B." Du Bois. He was the founder of the National Association For the Advancement of Colored People, also known as N.A.A.C.P. This was formed mainly because of the Plessy v. Ferguson case that happened in 1896. This case legalized “separate but equal.” Everything, I mean everything was separated between the whites and the blacks. For instance, water fountains, schools, classrooms, restrooms, seats in the bus were completely separated. The blacks facilities were always much worse than the whites. If failed to follow those rules, you can be sent to jail. This indicated that whites were and will always be more superior and important than other