Jan. 27, Reconstruction & the Rise of Jim Crow (1865–1896)

Reconstruction: Legal & Political Battles

Lincoln & Constitutional Amendments

  • Amendments normally come from Congress

  • Lincoln worried about:

    • Being accused of overstepping executive power

    • Using war powers to justify emancipation

  • Emancipation Proclamation:

    • Legal as a war measure

    • Not permanent → needed amendment

  • 13th Amendment:

    • Permanently ends slavery

  • 14th Amendment:

    • Equal protection under the law

    • Citizenship for those born or naturalized

    • Main debate in Congress (not the 13th)

Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)

  • Supreme Court ruling:

    • 14th Amendment applies only to federal/interstate issues

    • Not state (intrastate) matters

  • Impact:

    • States free to violate civil rights internally

    • Opened door to voting restrictions and segregation

  • Critical turning point against Reconstruction

Elections as a State Power

  • States control:

    • Ballots

    • Registration

    • Voting rules

  • Example:

    • Southern states removed Lincoln from 1860 ballots

  • This allowed states to:

    • Undermine the 15th Amendment

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

  • Case arranged to challenge segregation

  • Homer Plessy:

    • Light-skinned African American

    • Sat in whites-only rail car

  • Supreme Court ruling (7–2):

    • “Separate but equal” is constitutional

  • Result:

    • Segregation legalized nationwide

    • Lasted until Brown v. Board (1954)

White Supremacy & Violence

Ku Klux Klan (Founded 1868)

  • Origin: Pulaski, Tennessee

  • Purpose:

    • Terrorize freedmen

    • Prevent voting and civil rights use

  • Methods:

    • Beatings

    • Murder

    • Castration

  • Ideology:

    • Claimed Black men threatened white women

  • Founder:

    • Nathan Bedford Forrest (Confederate general)

Grant’s Response

  • Force Acts

  • Used federal troops

  • Nearly destroyed KKK

  • Klan resurged later (1920s)

Law Enforcement as Control

  • Southern police forces:

    • Enforced racist laws

    • Arrested Black citizens arbitrarily

  • Crimes included:

    • Vagrancy

    • Fishing

    • Not carrying labor contracts

  • Black people barred from juries

  • Result:

    • No white convictions for violence against Black people (1877–1960s)

Voting Suppression Methods

Legal Voting Requirements (Constitutional)

  1. U.S. citizen

  2. Age 18+ (later change)

  3. Not incarcerated for felony

States added extra barriers:

Literacy Tests

  • Complex, confusing language

  • Impossible to pass by design

  • Registrar decided if answers were “correct”

  • Targeted:

    • African Americans

    • Poor whites

Grandfather Clause

  • If father or grandfather voted in 1860:

    • No literacy test required

  • Effect:

    • Helped whites

    • Excluded formerly enslaved people

Poll Taxes

  • Required payment to vote

  • Targeted poor voters

  • Ended by 24th Amendment (1964)

Result of Voting Restrictions

  • Eliminated Black political power

  • Returned control to:

    • Wealthy white landowners

  • Lasted until:

    • Voting Rights Act (1965)

Big Picture Takeaway

  • Reconstruction amendments existed

  • Supreme Court + state control neutralized them

  • Segregation and disenfranchisement lasted decades