How Were Women Treated During The Reconstruction Era

The Promise of Emancipation declares freedom and justice towards every citizen regardless of race. This promise was not fulfilled as most individuals are still struggling with equal rights, fair treatment, and liberty, through the modern day problem of discrimination. Possible solutions to fasten the process of decreasing discrimination are to better inform next generations, understand consent, and support organizations that help individuals gain fair treatment. As we can tell from today's date, a lot of people suffer from discrimination even though they were promised equality and freedom. Making anti-discrimination laws and working to fix systemic inequalities can help close the gap between what we hope for and what truly happens. Even though
Women were not allowed to vote legally and were banned from political revolutions, which limited their ability to have any right in laws and policies that impacted them.The laws on property, divorce, and child custody were biased towards men, leaving women with little or no control over their own lives. Women were stereotyped to have homemaker or housewife responsibilities other than having education or careers. Even though the Reconstruction Amendments were considered to give African Americans freedom and citizenship, racism and sexism still continued. The National Woman Suffrage Association linked political rights to other causes, including inflammatory ones like free love, while the American Woman Suffrage Association kept the issue clear of "side issues”. The quote tells us that during this time when women were fighting for their rights, there was a lack of awareness towards this; they didn't care at all. Additionally, African American women experienced more discrimination. Even though the Amendments granted citizenship freedom to African Americans, Black women still faced racism and sexism, enduring violence and
African American men still end up facing legal discrimination through the Jim Crow laws and black codes. For example “In 1880, according to the U.S. Bureau of Census, 76 percent of southern African Americans were illiterate, a rate of 55 percent points greater than that for southern white people. In 1900, 50 percent of voting-age Black men could not read, compared to 12 percent of voting-aged white men. These disparities made literacy tests one of the most effective tools at suppressing the African American vote.” This proves that In the southern side of the United States there was an obvious gap between the black and whites during the late 19th and early 20th. For example, in 1880, 76% of African Americans were uneducated in the southern part of the U.S. Just like in 1900, half of black men that could vote couldn't read, knowing that the white men percentage was lower. “The Voting Rights Act, signed into law by President Johnson on August 6, 1965, suspended literacy and other tests in counties and states showing evidence of voter discrimination.” This shows that Lewis and Martin King Jr helped organize key moments like the Freedom