Reconstruction Video

The American Reconstruction Era in history began in 1863 and was characterized by violence. The violence stemmed from the attempt to integrate newly freed African Americans into a segregated society. These African Americans faced strong opposition from white Southerners who refused to accept the turning of the times. Reconstruction intended to reunite the Southern states with the Union and provided a status for newly liberated slaves. Many African Americans found optimism during this time as they looked for their families through advertisements, claimed their rights through the Reconstruction Amendments and rebuilt their lives following the Civil War. However, white Southerners immediately rejected the idea that society could function without racial barriers. 

The resistance used violence, including rioting, as well as restrictive regulations know as the Black Codes, to control black labor while maintaining white dominance. The Ku Klux Klan was formed to restore their lives and social order prior to the civil war and they operated similarly to the slave patrols. The backlash exposed the profound prejudice that persisted in the country after the abolition of slavery and the governments promises of citizenship for Black Americans 

Even after the civil war, Black Americans struggled with their rights well into the 1960s, demonstrating Reconstruction's failures to keep its promises. The goal was that after the 14th Amendment, Black families would be granted citizenship. However, racism and violence from white Southerners made life as an equal citizen difficult. From three-day race riots in Memphis to a white mob in New Orleans that slaughtered over 40 people, events like Emmett Till highlighted the geography of this time period. As Fredrick Douglass and others noticed, the political landscape was generally hostile and nonprotective of Back individuals as a result of Southern Democrats like Andrew Johnson. Their priorities and interests lie with rich white landowners above people who had been emancipated. 

The legacy of Reconstruction serves as a reminder of the fragile nature of development within the system. While this period provided a vision of what equality many look like, it also created the framework for long term racial tensions and conflicts, which shaped civil rights movements for decades