Reconstruction: Illusion of Equality
Following the end of the civil war, slavery came to an end with the passing of three important amendments the 13th which abolished slavery, 14th that gave the right to citizenship to any individual black, tainted or white born in the US and last the 15th allowing African American men to vote. African Americans would finally have been considered equal to rest of the US citizens or so they thought. Even though the new three amendments granted African American their new rights they were cheated out of them by both the Federal government who failed to enforce them and by the State government who took advantage of that and allowed several different methods to still oppress African Americans and maintain white …show more content…
According to an article published on the official website of the University of Michigan, in 1890, southern states started to implement the infamous “literacy tests”. These tests were used to deny suffrage to African Americans, the tests asked the individuals to complete a set of questions or tasks in order to be able to vote. Since approximately 80% of Africans Americans were illiterate and approximately only 10% of whites were illiterate the southern states created a statute to help the 10% of the white illiterate population who opposed to it. The statute was the “Grandfather Clause”. The clause allowed white individuals if they could demonstrate they descended from someone who could vote in 1867. We can see a clear example of how some states, despite the new amendments, found “loopholes” to circumvent the right to vote of African Americans. Moreover, according to Jones, southern states enacted laws to target only African Americans also known as black codes and laws such as the Pig law. For example, a law was enacted where being unemployed was punishable with a fine of 50 dollars. In addition, with the banning of slavery and the desperate need of free labor in the south, laws were passed where crimes that were more likely to be committed by African Americans would be punished harshly. Punishments usually consisted of forced labor in sawmills, mines, cotton fields and so on. In other words, slavery. Once again, we can clearly see the creative ways of the state government to continue to do what they want with African
Following the end of the civil war, slavery came to an end with the passing of three important amendments the 13th which abolished slavery, 14th that gave the right to citizenship to any individual black, tainted or white born in the US and last the 15th allowing African American men to vote. African Americans would finally have been considered equal to rest of the US citizens or so they thought. Even though the new three amendments granted African American their new rights they were cheated out of them by both the Federal government who failed to enforce them and by the State government who took advantage of that and allowed several different methods to still oppress African Americans and maintain white …show more content…
According to an article published on the official website of the University of Michigan, in 1890, southern states started to implement the infamous “literacy tests”. These tests were used to deny suffrage to African Americans, the tests asked the individuals to complete a set of questions or tasks in order to be able to vote. Since approximately 80% of Africans Americans were illiterate and approximately only 10% of whites were illiterate the southern states created a statute to help the 10% of the white illiterate population who opposed to it. The statute was the “Grandfather Clause”. The clause allowed white individuals if they could demonstrate they descended from someone who could vote in 1867. We can see a clear example of how some states, despite the new amendments, found “loopholes” to circumvent the right to vote of African Americans. Moreover, according to Jones, southern states enacted laws to target only African Americans also known as black codes and laws such as the Pig law. For example, a law was enacted where being unemployed was punishable with a fine of 50 dollars. In addition, with the banning of slavery and the desperate need of free labor in the south, laws were passed where crimes that were more likely to be committed by African Americans would be punished harshly. Punishments usually consisted of forced labor in sawmills, mines, cotton fields and so on. In other words, slavery. Once again, we can clearly see the creative ways of the state government to continue to do what they want with African