Social studies- Reconstruction

Focus #8: How did Southern States limit suffrage* after the 15th Amendment? (*Suffrage: The right to vote)

- What the South did to stop AA from voting Made sure that you had to pay a fee to be able to vote. (Most were poor) Made them take a literacy test where you have read and explain a part of the Constitution. (Freedman had little education) - Why the South wanted to stop AA from voting 90% of African Americans voted Republican. 90% of eligible voters voted. White Southerners wanted to stop the election of Republicans to keep Southerners Society the way it was before the Civil War. - Impact on AA suffrage African American Suffrage greatly decreases.- down to 2% in some areas of eligible voters.

What is the Equal Protection Clause?

A phrase in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution requiring that states guarantee the same rights, privileges, and protections to all citizens.

What was the KKK?

A secret society created by white southerners in 1866 that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their civil rights

Focus #5: How were Black Codes and The Sharecropping system a result of Southern fears following ratification* of the 13th Amendment? (*Ratification: the official way to approve something, usually by vote.)

Black codes were a group of laws passed in the former Confederate states right after the Civil War.These laws were meant to keep African Americans from gaining any political or economic advancement by prohibiting their job,educational,and civil opportunities. So when the AA gained rights, they were afraid of blacks rebelling and they now had to do their own work. Most didn't know how to grow their own crops either.

Focus #7: What were the reasons for the emergence of groups like The KKK and what were their goals and methods?

Goal #1: Stop African Americans from voting. Destroy the republican party. Method of obtaining that goal: Wearing masks to hide identity. Committing illegal acts-also creates fear. Used weapons-hurt people/used violence to achieve their goals. Goal #2- Stop African Americans from gaining education.Keep African Americans out of government.Used violence and fear to try and keep the South the same socially and politically as it was before the civil war. Method to achieve this goal: Burning down schools.Lynchings were used in public. Lynching = crowds of people grabbed a certain person,put a noose around his/her neck and hung them slowly. Coffin notices were placed in public newspapers. - The reasons that the KKK emerged was because they didn't want AA to take say in government or have any rights. They also didn't want the republican party to succeed in this so they wanted to take them down

What were Jim Crow Laws?

Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the South that made racial segregation—separation by races—legal. After the civil war African Americans gained rights from the thirteenth,fourteenth and fifteenth amendment. However after reconstruction ended, Southern states began to limit those rights through segregation laws (Jim Crow). The separation of facilities like bathrooms,schools,and restaurants. These were meant to keep African Americans as second class citizens.

FOCUS #10: How were Jim Crow Laws partly an effect of the election of 1876?

Jim crow laws were an effect of the election of 1876 because after the Democrats agreed to end military reconstruction of the South - the new Southern governments began to severely limit the rights of African Americans in an attempt to keep them as second class citizens. One of the most widely used laws were segregation, the separation of white and black citizens in most Southern States.

Focus #6: How was the passage of the 14th Amendment and the Military Reconstruction Act a reaction to Black Codes and Johnson's plan for Reconstruction? What was Johnson's plan for Reconstruction?

Johnson's plan for reconstruction was: ∙ Majority of male Southern white voters must pledge loyalty oath ∙ Leaders of Confederacy and people with at least $20,000 must seek special pardon. ∙ Ratify 13th amendment (abolition of slavery)

What was the 14th amendment?

Leading up to the Civil war, during the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court ruled that AA's aren't citizens. The 14th Amendment was made to correct that. 14th Amendment states- National citizenship and forbidding the states to restrict the basic rights of citizens or other persons. It was passed to reassure that Americans, including blacks were not limited of their rights. It was also a way for the Southern states to reenter the union.

Focus #6: How was the passage of the 14th Amendment and the Military Reconstruction Act a reaction to Black Codes and Johnson's plan for Reconstruction?

Radicals (republicans) take control- South wasn't following guidelines and many passed black codes. If you didn't own land you couldn't live there because of black codes. They then passed the 14th Amendment giving AA citizenship because republicans wanted to stay in office. By doing this, they reversed the Dred Scott decision and they are now protected along with anyone born in the united states. The Radicals passed the reconstruction act in 1867. It divided up South for military rule. African American males were now allowed to vote. State's must pass the 14th Amendment because it is going into the Constitution. New state constitutions must be approved by congress. This was a reaction to Black codes because black codes denied AA of their rights. And AA made up most of the South so this was bad for republicans. So we got AA their rights so we would be able to beat the democrats and stay in office.

Focus #4: What were some of the real and imagined consequences of losing the Civil War for some Southerners?

Real- Losing their own government that they created. Imagined- Freedman might refuse to work. - Fear of freedman attacking whites. - Society will be changed to benefit blacks.

Focus #9: How did the compromise of 1877 end the Military Reconstruction of the South?

The Compromise of 1877 was an informal, unwritten deal that settled the intensely disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election. It resulted in the United States federal government pulling the last troops out of the South, and formally ended the Reconstruction Era. After the disputed Presidential Election of 1876, Congress declared Republican Rutherford B. Hayes the winner, but Republicans promised to withdraw remaining troops from Southern states. This marked the end of Reconstruction.With the compromise, the Republicans had quietly given up their fight for racial equality and blacks' rights in the south. In 1877, Hayes withdrew the last federal troops from the south, and the bayonet-backed Republican governments collapsed, thereby ending Reconstruction.

FOCUS #11: How did the Supreme Court's interpretation of the 14th amendment's Equal Protection Clause in the Plessy case affect African Americans in the South after Reconstruction? Plessy's view of equal.....

The Supreme Court interpreted equal as having the same things just separated. Having the same stuff just blacks were a dirtier form of it. So because Plessy lost and the Supreme court ruled separate but equal, segragation lasted longer. - In 1890,Louisiana passed The Separate Car Act. A Jim Crow law that required separate train cars for Blacks and Whites. Their interpretation of the word equal in the fourteenth amendment was to give the same things to Blacks and Whites. - Plessy and his lawyers interpreted equal as having equal opportunity and equal standing in society. - The Supreme court ruled in favor of Louisiana and upheld the idea of separate but equal creating segregation for the next 65 years.

What is the 13th Amendment?

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. In Congress, it was passed by the Senate and while Abraham Lincoln was still alive after the civil war.

What was the 15th Amendment?

The citizens of the US shall don't be denied the right to vote because of race, color, or previous servitude. Republicans wanted AA to have the right to vote because they wanted more republicans on their side. This was because they thought the democrats were coming to take over.

What was reconstruction?

The program to rebuild the south and restore them to the union (NORTH) after the Civil War.

What was sharecropping? What was the bad thing about it?

Under this system, black families would rent small plots of land, or shares, to work themselves; in return, they would give a portion of their crop to the landowner at the end of the year. The white land-owners arranged things so that most sharecroppers could not make enough money sharecropping to buy their food and clothes. They ended up having to borrow money from the land-owners, and soon they were always in debt.

Ulysses S. Grant was the ...

Union Civil War General who won the 1868 Presidential election on the Republican ticket. Congress was now able to work with the White House on Reconstruction issues.

What was the Grandfather clause?

a law aimed at keeping blacks from being able to vote without excluding poor whites. It stated that in order to be able to vote, your ancestor had to vote before the time of emancipation.

What was the election on 1876? Haye's promise.

was the Democratic candidate for the 1876 election. He was in a deadlock with Rutherford B. Hayes due to hazy counting in Florida. A committee was set up to determine. Hayes was chosen to become President on the condition that Reconstruction ended. Hayes secretly promised to end reconstruction so he won the Presidency against Tilden.