Week 2 reflection: History of Reconstruction and the Rise of Jim Crow

After the war, all-white Southern legislatures passed a law that didn’t allow blacks the right to buying or renting land. They tried to force former slaves to work on plantations. This led The Republicans to gain control of Reconstruction from President Andrew Johnson. That denied  representatives from the former Confederate states their seats. Then they passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Also the draft of the 14th Amendment which extended citizenship rights to African Americans and guaranteeing equal protection of the laws. In 1870, the 15th Amendment gave voting rights to black men. former slaves joined with white Republicans to govern the South. The freedmen, in alliance with the northerners and southern white Republicans which were called scalawags, gained power for a short period of time in every Confederate state except Virginia. There was over 600 African Americans served as legislators in Reconstruction governments. Southern Republicans wanted to advance the South by building railroads and providing free education and other social services. The Reconstruction governments made up democratic state constitutions which expanded women's rights. They also provided debt relief, and created the South's first state-funded schools. The failure of reconstruction had long-term negative consequences. Racism became more deeply embedded in American society. It got so bad that The South's economy became  entirely dependent on a single crop, cotton without that they wouldn’t have nothing. also an increasing number of People from the south were reduced to tenant farming. One-off the political party, the Democratic Party, monopolized political power. The Violence was so bad that it kept immigrants from even going to the region. In most of the South, the end of the war was followed by a lot  of white rage. White mobs whipped, clubbed, and murdered ex-slaves. When that happen the vast majority of former slaves stayed away from seeking vengeance against their former masters. Instead they tired to achieve social and independence by forming separate lodges, newspapers, and political organizations.The roots of half a century of southern poverty had been planted. Before the Reconstruction happen there were no statewide tax supported education systems in the South, except in Tennessee. Freedmen's academies set up by educators from the north to educate former slaves provided the outline for state education systems.the first institutions  for blacks were established in the South. A few black colleges that were founded during the Reconstruction included Fisk University in Nashville in 1866, Howard University in Washington in 1867, and Virginia's Hampton Institute in 1868. former slaves invested their savings in the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company. The trust company and savings  had been chartered by the Federal government to teach the value of thrift. It later failed after the financial panic of 1873, and the federal government did nothing to help them get out of it.they let them struggle. Somehow they seemed to make it through spite everything they’ve been through.a lot of great things came out of this and lot of and things. It’s was all worth it even though I wish it didn’t have to go that way but without them fighting , I wouldn’t be living how I’m living today.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=8&smtID=1

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3108