During Reconstruction, the period following the Civil War, federal troops occupied parts of the South to maintain order and ensure the rights of African Americans. Congress established the Freedmen 's Bureau to help former slaves and enacted some legal protections for African Americans. In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing citizenship and legal equality to all people born in the United States, including former slaves, and in 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, granting black men the right to vote.
Many white southerners opposed efforts to aid and protect emancipated slaves and formed groups to intimidate them and prevent them from advancing socially, economically, and politically. Foremost among these groups was the Ku Klux Klan, which committed violent and vicious crimes against blacks in the name of protecting the "purity" of the white race. "By whippings, rapes, the …show more content…
Soon after white gunman Dylann Roof reportedly shot and killed nine black parishioners at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015, attention turned to Roof 's apparent fondness for the flag, with which he had posed in photographs. The power to remove the flag rested with South Carolina lawmakers, who debated whether it should come down or be placed elsewhere. State representative Mike Pitts, for example, proposed dozens of alternatives for the flag 's exhibition, such as displaying it inside glass near the State House. Representative Jenny Horne, who has stated that she is a descendant of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, delivered an emotional and frustrated plea for legislators to stop delaying tactics and promptly remove the flag. A few days later, South Carolina’s House and Senate voted to remove the flag. The next day, thousands gathered to watch as the flag was
Many white southerners opposed efforts to aid and protect emancipated slaves and formed groups to intimidate them and prevent them from advancing socially, economically, and politically. Foremost among these groups was the Ku Klux Klan, which committed violent and vicious crimes against blacks in the name of protecting the "purity" of the white race. "By whippings, rapes, the …show more content…
Soon after white gunman Dylann Roof reportedly shot and killed nine black parishioners at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015, attention turned to Roof 's apparent fondness for the flag, with which he had posed in photographs. The power to remove the flag rested with South Carolina lawmakers, who debated whether it should come down or be placed elsewhere. State representative Mike Pitts, for example, proposed dozens of alternatives for the flag 's exhibition, such as displaying it inside glass near the State House. Representative Jenny Horne, who has stated that she is a descendant of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, delivered an emotional and frustrated plea for legislators to stop delaying tactics and promptly remove the flag. A few days later, South Carolina’s House and Senate voted to remove the flag. The next day, thousands gathered to watch as the flag was