Reconstruction’s Failure to Bring Social and Economic...

The Reconstruction Era lasted up to 1877 from the time just after the Civil War. The Reconstruction failed to bring about social and economic equality to the former slaves due to the southern whites’ resentful and bitter outlook on the matter, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Jim Crow laws. After the Civil War, the southern whites were extremely resentful and bitter. In 1865 the southern states began issuing â€Å"black codes,† which were laws made subsequent to the Civil War that had the effect of limiting the civil rights and civil liberties of blacks. This term tends to refer to the legislation passed by southern states to control the labor, migration, and other activities of newly freed slaves. When the slaves were freed, they still had†¦show more content†¦The Ku Klux Act gave the president great power to intervene with southern states affected by the Klan’s violent acts. Federal officials eventually arrested hundreds of people suspected to have been invol ved in the Klan and the violence then subsided. However, by this time, the Ku Klux Klan had achieved its main goals in the majority of the southern states and the white supremacist governments were then in firm control. Consequently, a variety of legal measures could be taken to suppress the blacks’ voting and civil rights. The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted that mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in southern states of the former confederacy. The blacks were said to be â€Å"separate but equal† and this separation led to conditions for the blacks that tended to be inferior to those provided for whites. Law-enforced segregation mainly applied to the southern United States whereas northern segregation had patterns of segregation in housing that was enforced by the covenants, bank lending practices, and job discrimination. For decades, this included discriminatory union practices for decades. The Jim Crow laws segregated public schools, public places, public transportation, restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains. Therefore, it did nothing to bring about social or economic equality. The southern states’ bitter attitudes, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Jim Crow Laws all