With the ultimate withdrawal in 1876 of federal troops in the south, the period known as Reconstruction was over. Many of the inquiries about what it means to be free, framed by a solution of Reconstruction, in fact, were never resolved, and perhaps only skewed farther away from resolve. This spelled the end of the Republican effort to elevate southern blacks to the status of full citizenship. It marked the almost century-long return of the elites’ return to power in the south, and although plantation slavery never returned, its legacy remained in place in systematic institutions for many years to come. One could argue that because of the premature failure of reconstruction, its legacy continues to this day, including the restricted access
