Topic 1 Lesson 3 Reconstruction's Impact

The idea that African Americans ought to accommodate segregation and focus their energy on education and economic advancement was a belief held by...

Booker T. Washington

The enactment of the Jim Crow laws sought to...

Keep blacks and whites separated.

Imagine you are an African American living during the late 1870s, after the Civil War. How did Reconstruction benefit you? How did it fall short?

-It enabled them to gain citizenship and voting rights. -It also promoted literacy within African American communities. -Opened new vistas for African Americans. -South's economy and infrastructure were improved. -However, Reconstruction failed to heal the bitterness between the North and South or to provide lasting protection for freed people.

Give two examples of how southern whites restricted the voting rights of African Americans in the years after the Civil War. Explain why these examples particularly impacted African Americans.

-The Poll tax, which required voters to pay a tax to vote. Poor African Americans could not afford such a fee. -Literacy tests, requiring voters to pass in order to vote. Because African Americans were exploited economically and denied an education, these restrictions disqualified many of them as voters.

After Reconstruction, many southern states enacted a poll tax, which was used to...

Ensure poor African Americans could not afford to vote.

The group of politicians known as the "Redeemers" had the main goal of...

Regaining power in Congress for the South.

The Compromise of 1877 granted Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency in exchange for what?

Removal of all remaining federal troops in the South.