Reconstruction Era Research Paper

In the era that directly followed the civil war, the South was in a state of Chaos, they had just lost the Civil War and slavery was abolished, so millions upon millions were set free and were eager to begin life as free citizens. Unfortunately, the south was not ready yet to give the newly freed African Americans, all of the liberties as free citizens they had just been granted, this was just the beginning of the plight for freedom. This time period saw a sharp increase in the number of lynchings of free African Americans. According to Ida B Wells, this occurred due to the fact that the Southern whites strongly desired a way to control the Blacks. This meant that if a black man or woman violated one of the south's Unwritten laws called the Jim Crow Laws, that he or she could and probably would be lynched by
Ida B basically defines civil rights as the right to vote, right to socioeconomic mobility/rights and equal protection under the law. On the other hand, Washington Urged blacks at this time to give up some of their civil liberties in order to make way economically. Interestingly enough, the United States at this time passed what is now known as the reconstruction amendments. These are the 13th,14th, and 15th amendments which were supposed to give African Americans the civil rights they had been seeking. The 13th amendment abolished slavery, the 14th amendment gave all citizens(individuals born or naturalized in the united states) equal protection under the law and the 15th strictly prohibited the denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous servitude. Although these were supposed to promote civil rights, these amendments were worded so that individuals could find loopholes within them. For example, the 15th amendment could be countered by denying individuals the right to vote based off of other factors such as literacy, intimidation/violence, and many other