Reconstruction and Race Relations

Reconstruction and Race Relations

Reconstruction and Race Relations The time period during the Reconstruction Era saw a lot of change to the lives of every American, from white southern power struggles to post-Reconstruction political and social climate change. Newly freed slaves sought to start a new life freed from the bonds of slavery, while Southern White hierarchy tried everything that they could to keep them chained to the local laws. Former slaves tried to move to the North, educate themselves and reunite with family that had been sent off by slave owners after being freed. After enjoying a sense of freedom for a small period of time, they were ripped from their grasps with the end of the Reconstruction Era. The time period of Reconstruction was an up and down battles for both white and black Americans who fought both to change their way of life and at the same time keep some elements of it the same. During the Reconstruction Era, Southerners tried to employ numerous amounts of tactics that would make the exercise of freedom challenging for former slaves. These methods included: intimidation of Black voters, Jim Crow laws and Black Codes. Radical Republicans were in favor of the Emancipation Proclamation even before Abraham Lincoln proposed it, and where fighting to ensure that freed slaves would acquire basic rights. The passing of the 15th amendment, granted all black male citizens the right to vote, to counteract this, former slave owners and leading officials in the south used intimidation to keep former slaves from projecting any political power. Democratic landowners fired tenant farmers who voted Republican and publicized their names in local newspapers to prevent other landowners from hiring them too (Schultz, 2012, p286). The Radical Republicans fought to pass the Civil Rights Act which would counter-act any Black Codes put in place by the power hungry Southern states. President Johnson vetoed the bill but Congress was able to overturn the veto making it the first even law passed over a presidential veto. Black codes were any of the numerous laws enacted in the states of the former Confederacy after the Civil War and intended to assure the continuance of White supremacy. The Black codes had their roots in the slave codes that had formerly been in effect. The Black codes varied from state to state but were all intended to secure a steady supply of cheap labor and the continued assumption that Blacks were inferior to Whites (Black Code, n. d.). Though it did allow the freed slaves some freedom like the legalization of marriage and the right to own property, they weren’t allowed to serve on a jury or testify against a White person in court (Schultz, 2012, p279). The U.S. government took action against these local laws which they deemed unconstitutional and passed the Civil Rights Act, which guaranteed basic civil rights regardless of race. The passing of the Jim Crow laws at the state and local level in the south further ensured the racial segregation that the post-Reconstruction Era brought about. The term, “Jim Crow,” originated around the 1830’s when Thomas Rice – a white man in black face – mimicked black people as part of a performance entitled “Jump Jim Crow”. Over time, state sponsored legal segregation and discrimination began to be referred to as Jim Crow laws and practices, such as “quadruple public bathrooms, special trains and tramways, separate restaurants and hotels, double waiting rooms, and colored coded drinking fountains” (Kelly, 2010, p115). In 1890, Homer Plessy, a man who claimed to be one-eighth black, challenged segregation on trains by sitting in a White car and announcing he was black. With his arrest, Plessy had hoped to challenge the 1890 Louisiana Separate Car Act which had growing support for local protest. Plessy’s case eventually went to the Supreme Court and the courts ruled that segregation was constitutional as long as accommodations were “separate but equal” (Schultz, 2012, p319). As soon as the slaves were freed they took action to ensure that they could better their lives and enjoy the freedoms that were granted to them which included, moving north, educating themselves, owning land, and running for political office. During the slavery period, many families were split up by white slave owners who had sold them to other slave owners. The freedom to move about freely was a cherished freedom for black Americans; this helped them try to find family members that were sold to other black slave owners during slavery. The newly freed slaves also sought the education that had been denied them during slavery, schools for African Americans opened all over the South. Learning to read meant learning to understand contracts, engage in political battles, and monitor wages (Schultz, 2012, p276). Since farming was the only thing that most of the slaves had known, that is what they tried to continue to do after they were freed. Slaves often purchased land, most of the time the land was purchased from farms that they worked on previously. Due to the slow crawl of the Industrial Revolution to the South, most black southerners had to accept work for former white slave owners as sharecroppers. With the lack of opportunities presented to them after the Civil War to better their lives as freed citizens, black males thought they could ensure that fairness would be enforced and that the law would be upheld by running for political office. During Reconstruction, around 2,000 African Americans held public office, from the local level all the way up to the U.S. Senate, though they never achieved representation in government proportionate to their numbers (African-American Leaders During Reconstruction, n.d.). The post-Reconstruction Era marked a time where the freedoms of former slaves were on the decline because of the onset of an economic downturn. The Civil Rights Cases and the Mississippi Plan was a couple of measures that black Americans saw put in place by the decline of the Reconstruction Era. In 1883, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1875, forbidding discrimination in hotels, trains, and other public spaces, was unconstitutional and not authorized by the 13th or 14th Amendments of the Constitution. The decision outraged the Black community and many Whites as well, for they felt it opened the door to legalized segregation (The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, n.d.). This decision by the Supreme Court only further instilled the Jim Crow laws that had been loosely set in place by the local and state governments of the South. Not only did the post-Reconstruction Era fail to recognize the rights of all people but it also saw an increase in violence against Blacks and Republicans. The Mississippi Plan was a good example of the actions that Southerners put in place to ensure Democratic rule in the south and to deny black men and Republicans the right to vote. Democratic clubs like the Ku Klux Klan began to terrorize Republican Party leaders and the black and white citizens who supported them. Unlike the time during which the North deeply cared about the strife in the South, President Grant failed to step in to stop the violence (Schultz, 2012, p287). During the nineteenth century, pieces of legislation which included The Homestead Act and The Dawes General Allotment Act, was passed that solidified the status of African Americans and other non-white Americans. The Homestead Act set in motion a program of public land grants to small farmers (Homestead Act, n.d.). The Homestead Act awarded 160 acres to settlers who occupied the land for five years, and between 1862 and 1890 it led to the creation of almost 400,000 farms (Schultz, 2012, p322). Being able to own land gave African Americans and other immigrants the feeling of owning a part of the United States. With the Industrial Revolution and the expansion of it to the West, the United States entered into a time period of turmoil with the American Indians. The Dawes General Allotment Act was a way the U.S. Government sought to bring peace about with the American Indians. It stated that all lands held by tribes where to be divided up among families and individuals. The land could not be sold and would be held, in trust, by the United States for 25 years afterwards, the family or individual would gain title to the land and became a United States citizen. Though the Dawes General Allotment Act looked good on paper it didn’t translate to the real world, due to most of the land that was set aside for the Indians wasn’t suitable for agriculture because the land was too arid (Schultz, 2012, p327). Under the Dawes Act, Indian life deteriorated in a manner not anticipated by its sponsors. The social structure of the tribe was weakened, many nomadic Indians were unable to adjust to an agricultural existence, others were swindled out of their property, and life on the reservation came to be characterized by disease, filth, poverty, and despondency (Dawes General Allotment Act, n.d.). The racial tension during the 19th century has created a rift in American society we still see today. A lot of the same racial tension that was expressed back is still present today in the form of racism. Racism is present in the school system and in the work place even though it should not exist at all. All colleges around the U.S. should be transparent but in today’s world you still see predominantly black and predominantly white ones here and there. Colleges might turn down a student just because of their race even if they are more qualified to attend that school then some of the other students who have been accepted. Racism has also spilled over into the workplace where sometimes minorities are getting paid less or not getting that promotion that they deserve. The United States has put in place laws which include the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prevent these types of racism but you still see them going on in today’s society. The culture of the United States has going through great change since the 19th century partly because of racial tension and racism. Because of the burdens placed on them, African Americans have tried to be different in their cultural ways which include music, clothing, hair styles, food, and attitudes. The Reconstruction era was deemed by some as “unfinished” and it would be almost 100 years before Blacks’ full rights as citizens were realized during the civil rights movements.

References
African-American Leaders During Reconstruction. (n.d.). History.com. Retrieved October 26, 2013, from http://www.history.com/topics/african-american-leaders-during- reconstruction
Black Code (United States history). (n.d.).Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved October 26, 2013, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/67722/black-code
Dawes General Allotment Act (United States [1887]). (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved October 26, 2013, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/152952/Dawes-General-Allotment- Act
Homestead Act. (n.d.). History.com. Retrieved October 26, 2013, from http://www.history.com/topics/homestead-act
Kelly, H. (2010). Race, Remembering, and Jim Crow’s Teachers. New York: Routledge.
Schultz, Kevin M. (2014) HIST: Volume 2: U.S. history since 1865 (3rd ed.). University of Illinois at Chicago: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. (n.d.). PBS. Retrieved October 26, 2013, from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_uncivil.html

References: African-American Leaders During Reconstruction. (n.d.). History.com. Retrieved October 26, 2013, from http://www.history.com/topics/african-american-leaders-during- reconstruction Black Code (United States history). (n.d.).Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved October 26, 2013, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/67722/black-code Dawes General Allotment Act (United States [1887]). (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved October 26, 2013, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/152952/Dawes-General-Allotment- Act Homestead Act. (n.d.). History.com. Retrieved October 26, 2013, from http://www.history.com/topics/homestead-act Kelly, H. (2010). Race, Remembering, and Jim Crow’s Teachers. New York: Routledge. Schultz, Kevin M. (2014) HIST: Volume 2: U.S. history since 1865 (3rd ed.). University of Illinois at Chicago: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. (n.d.). PBS. Retrieved October 26, 2013, from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_uncivil.html