Radical Reconstruction Failure

Radical Reconstruction Failure
After the Civil War, although slaves were freed, whites were still treating blacks unfairly. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution helped blacks get their equal rights. These amendments stated that slavery was illegal, any person born in the U.S. was a citizen in the U.S., and any male citizen could vote no matter what race they are. The Reconstruction Acts also helped blacks gain equality. These acts made sure the south let blacks be part of political decisions. After Reconstruction ended, though, other races and groups tried to stop blacks from using their new rights. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan threatened to keep them from being treated equally. Many blacks, like Homer Plessey, fought for same equal rights as whites.
The Thirteenth Amendment was one of three amendments passed after the Civil War. The amendment was put in the U.S. Constitution in 1865. The amendment stated that slavery was illegal. The Thirteenth Amendment made the Emancipation Proclamation (Abraham Lincoln’s announcement to the seceded states that their slaves were now free) into a law. This gave Congress the right to make laws so that people could not have slaves. When the slaves were freed, the slave owners had to pay more money to have their work done. Many slave owners hired their former slaves to do the work they once had to do for free. Some owners wanted the government to give them money because they took their slaves away. The northern workers thought that the freed blacks would take their jobs for less pay. The white workers thought that people would be competing for their jobs, causing pay to go down and working conditions to be poor. The blacks still did not get a good education, though, so they could not get certain kinds of jobs.
After Abraham Lincoln’s death in 1865, Andrew Johnson became president. Johnson announced that whites were the only ones who could take part in conventions to rewrite Southern...