History Unit 2: Level 3-4

1 State/federal government problem that hurt African Americans after reconstruction

State and local governments implemented the Jim Crow Laws which heavily suppressed and limited African Americans by segregation, acting as a huge setback in opportunities or any progress made during reconstruction. These laws reinforced the fact that southerners didn’t view them as equal and were deemed inferior. African Americans were restricted from jobs, education, and healthcare, and frequently having to live in poverty.

1 Economic/Society problem that hurt African Americans after reconstruction

Sharecropping was a process that causes more harm than good in the long run. Many African Americans resorted to sharecropping because of the lack of resources after slavery, but got stuck in a cycle of debt that most couldn’t pay off. This also resulted in a slavery of its own kind, trapping people in extreme debt that forced them to stay on the land. The debt racked up was not always true either, many landowners got away with overcharging.

Were African Americans free during reconstruction?

No, African Americans weren’t totally free during reconstruction despite being freed from slavery. Even though certain improvements such as the 13th, 14th, 15th amendments and more equality politically and constitutionally, there were still plenty of setbacks in growth. White southerners relied on ways to make themselves superior without direct slavery, implementing laws such as black codes that allowed controlled black labor and punished unemployment or homelessness with fines or even arrests. Attempts to strip African Americans rights were a constant problem, using poll taxes and literacy tests to limit voting heavily affected people of color. As if denying their rights wasn’t enough, southerners resorted to intimidation and violence, leaving African Americans in a constant state of fear in their “freedom”. White supremacist terrorist groups targeted them with fear, and even violence and murder. African americans may not have been trapped in slavery anymore, but they were constantly stuck under Southern racism that was actively working against their civil rights everyday that prevented progress/opportunities.

.

.