Chapter 23: Reconstruction

impacts 13th, 14th, and 15th

• The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, known collectively as the Civil War Amendments, were designed to ensure equality for recently emancipated slaves. The 13th Amendment banned slavery and all involuntary servitude, except in the case of punishment for a crime. The 14th Amendment defined a citizen as any person born in or naturalized in the U.S., overturning the Dredd Scott V. Sandford (1857) Supreme Court ruling stating that Black people were not eligible for citizenship. The 15th Amendment prohibited governments from denying U.S. citizens the right to vote based on race, color, or past servitude. Source: Boundless. “The Civil War Amendments.” Boundless Political Science. Boundless, 08 Jun. 2015. Retrieved 09 Jun. 2015 from https://www.boundless.com/political-science/textbooks/boundless-political-s...

house of representatives

• The U.S. House of Representatives votes 11 articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson, nine of which cite Johnson's removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, a violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The House vote made President Johnson the first president to be impeached in U.S. history.

south reconstruction

• In the South, the primary battle was between the Planters – who were a minority of the population but who dominated the South economically, politically, and socially – and the Freedmen, 3 ½- 4 million of them, who wanted legal and political equality and land. The South also was home to millions of white yeomen (small independent farmers) who desired more political say in how their states were run, and who were eager to get back on their feet economically following the devastation of the war. In the federal government, the Republican Party was dominant, and the most outspoken group within the Republican Party were known as the Radical Republicans. They were the northerners who were most bitter toward the planters and the most dedicated to winning equality for the freedmen. A minority of the Republican Party in 1865, the Radicals nevertheless came to dominate Congress with their calls for significant political and legal change in the South.

southerners limit african americans

• Reconstruction is how they limited african americans

plessy vs. ferguson

• Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal".

ku klux klan

• The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), or simply "the Klan", is the name of three distinct movements in the United States. The first sought to overthrow the Republican state governments in the South during the Reconstruction Era, especially by violence against African American leaders. It ended about 1871. The second was a very large, controversial, nationwide organization in the 1920s that especially opposed Catholics. The current manifestation consists of numerous small unconnected groups that use the KKK name. They have all emphasized racism, secrecy and distinctive costumes. All have called for purification of American society, and all are considered part of right-wing extremism.[3][4]

jim crow laws

• Jim Crow laws were created in the American South after the Civil War. They manipulated the spirit of the Emancipation Proclamation and the letter of the federal law to ensure that White dominance of African Americans would continue even after it was illegal to own slaves. Jim Crow laws created forced segregation in the public school system, kept African Americans from riding in the same section of public buses as Caucasians, kept many African Americans from moving out of segregated neighborhoods, and often made it difficult for African Americans to vote.