U.S. Reconstruction: Key Laws, Court Cases, and Political Figures

What does the Legislative Branch (Congress) do?

Makes laws, controls the national budget, and can impeach and remove the President and judges.

What does the Executive Branch (President) do?

Carries out laws, appoints justices, and can veto legislation from Congress.

What does the Judicial Branch (Courts) do?

Interprets laws and can declare acts of Congress or presidential actions unconstitutional through judicial review.

What are Legislative Checks?

Congress can reject presidential appointments, override vetoes with a supermajority, and impeach and remove the President or judges.

What are Executive Checks?

The President can veto bills and appoint judges (with Senate approval).

What are Judicial Checks?

The Supreme Court can declare laws or executive actions unconstitutional.

Who were Carpetbaggers?

Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War to profit from Reconstruction.

Who were Scalawags?

White Southerners who supported Northern Republicans during Reconstruction.

Who were the Radical Republicans?

Politicians who pushed for civil rights for freed slaves and full emancipation.

Who were the Redeemers?

Southern Democrats aiming to regain control from Radical Republicans.

What was Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)?

A Supreme Court case ruling that people of African descent could not be U.S. citizens and had no constitutional rights.

What was Lincoln's 1863 Reconstruction (10%) Plan?

Allowed restoration of property (except to Confederate leaders) and new state governments if 10% of voters swore allegiance.

What was the Wade-Davis Bill (1864)?

Required a majority (over 50%) of a state's voters to swear allegiance before forming a new government.

What did the 13th Amendment (1865) do?

Abolished slavery except as punishment for a crime; Congress could enforce it by law.

What is Sharecropping?

A system where landowners allowed tenants to use land in return for a share of the crops.

What were Andrew Johnson's actions during Reconstruction?

Pardoned many Confederates and allowed Southern states to pass restrictive Black Codes.

What were the Black Codes (1865)?

Southern laws restricting freedpeople's rights, jobs, and movement.

What were the Freedmen's Bureau's successes?

Opened 40 hospitals, 4,000 schools, distributed 21 million rations, helped legalize marriages, and assisted veterans.

What were the Freedmen's Bureau's failures?

Underfunded, understaffed, closed in 1872, and faced Black Code restrictions.

What was "40 acres and a mule"?

An unfulfilled plan to divide 400,000 acres for freed Black Americans, special field order 15.

What did the Civil Rights Bill of 1866 do?

Granted equal rights to all American men (except Native Americans); Congress overrode Johnson's veto.

What did the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 establish?

Divided the South into 5 military districts; required new constitutions guaranteeing Black male suffrage.

Why was Andrew Johnson impeached?

For violating the Tenure of Office Act; he survived removal by one Senate vote.

What was Ulysses S. Grant's stance on Reconstruction?

Supported Radical Reconstruction; enforced the 15th Amendment (voting rights).

What did the 14th Amendment (1868) do?

Granted citizenship and equal protection under the law.

What did the 15th Amendment (1870) do?

Guaranteed voting rights regardless of race or previous servitude.

What was the Poll Tax?

A fee required to vote, which many Black Americans couldn't afford.

What were Grandfather Clauses?

Laws allowing only those whose grandfathers could vote before the Civil War to bypass literacy tests—disenfranchising Black men.

Who were the Ku Klux Klan?

A white supremacist group that used violence against Black Americans and their allies.

What were the Enforcement Acts (1870-1871)?

Laws protecting Black Americans' rights to vote, hold office, serve on juries, and receive equal protection.

What was the Panic of 1873?

An economic crisis causing massive unemployment and weakening Northern support for Reconstruction.

What was the Colfax Massacre (1873)?

White supremacists killed around 150 Black freedmen defending a courthouse in Louisiana.

What did the Civil Rights Act of 1875 do?

Prohibited segregation in public places (later struck down in 1883).

What was U.S. v. Cruikshank (1876)?

Supreme Court ruled the 14th Amendment protected only against state—not individual—violence.

What was the Compromise of 1877?

Rutherford B. Hayes became president in exchange for removing federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.