To what extent did Reconstruction fail? by Sophia Mendoza-Vega

mendozavegas — 2024-05-22 13:33:41 UTC

The goal of Reconstruction was to reunite the Southern and Northern states post-Civil War.

WWI

mendozavegas — 2024-05-28 04:24:19 UTC

No suffrage (literacy tests (no education)), poll taxes, race biased rights, grandfather clauses (only vote if your grandfather could in 1897)
Jim Crow laws -> enforced segregation (Plessy v Ferguson: "separate but equal")
denied most jobs and service in war, got lower jobs, not allowed on front line
Red Summer (1919): riots against black civilians returning post-war in cities

WWII

mendozavegas — 2024-05-28 04:31:01 UTC

Continued Jim Crow segregation
Lack of opportunities within war service
GI Bill: housing, education, money bill; applied to black people only if in already segregated neighborhoods
Red Scare: anti-communist hysteria, forced blacks to conform to racial order, set back civil rights

50s

mendozavegas — 2024-05-28 17:50:47 UTC

Continued Jim Crow laws, enforced segregation esp. in South
Red-lining, de jure + de facto: denied blacks loans, only allowed them to settle in poverty, slums, dirty/poor conditioned neighborhoods (turned into dirty neighborhoods bc of overcrowding as an effect of housing discrimination)
Schooling: "separate but equal"* caused whites to have prestigious, high-funded education; blacks had poor condition, low-funded education, broken books, etc. (*later overturned by Brown v Board)
Lower self-perception due to marginalization and segregation, proven by Clark Doll Test
Beginning of Civil Rights movement: Emmett Till, blacks faced violence, threats delayed movement by a decade

60s

mendozavegas — 2024-05-28 17:59:05 UTC

Freedom Rides: one of the ways of protesting segregation; rode integrated buses down deep South; KKK attacked and burned down bus
Slow rate of change

mendozavegas — 2024-05-28 18:08:16 UTC

Many of those freed experienced lack of education, housing, and employment. Additionally, despite the addition of voting and civil rights, majority continued to face discrimination and violence.

mendozavegas — 2024-05-28 18:08:27 UTC

The main focus for lawmakers during this time period was to abolish slavery. To do this, they passed many bills such as the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, which abolished slavery, granted citizenship to anybody, including black people, within the United States (except Native Americans), and voting rights to all respectively. The 14th amendment is particular was pushed into Congress after many complains from radical Republicans about not seeing enough quick change in the South.

Post-Civil Rights movement

mendozavegas — 2024-05-28 18:08:38 UTC

Deliberately given less economic and social opportunities than their white counterparts, experienced poverty, extreme debt, and low income
Experienced racial segregation in nearly all cities, caused return to slums and ghettos
Stigmatized as violent criminals, experienced violence (both in and out of black community)

mendozavegas — 2024-05-29 02:59:41 UTC

We can see the failures of Reconstruction start to shine as we go into the seemingly more progressive times of society. During a time where black people should now be thriving, instead they continue to face the same exact treatment, if not worse, that they had before they gained their 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. Society has deliberately failed them once again, pushing black back to where they started from.