Civil Rights and Race Relations in America - Factors affecting change table
Table looking at reasons for the changing position of civil rights and race relations in america
Factors – Reconstruction and Redemption 1863-1877
Factor Improvement Setback
Legislation/Congress - December 1865 – 13th Amendment ratified (abolished slavery and freed 4 - 1866 Southern Homestead Act set aside 44 million acres in
million) 5 Southern states to redistribute to former slaves but failed
- 1865 – Freedmen's Bureau established as the law was repealed.
o Provided food, clothing, housing, medical aid, established schools and - Loopholes in the 1870 15th Amendment (e.g., non-racial
offered legal assistance. reasons used to deny the vote).
o Attempted to settle former slaves on confiscated confederate lands - 1872 – Congress shut down Freedmen’s Bureau
o By 1870 – spent $1 million on education. - 1873 – President Grant pardoned 1,888 Klansmen not yet
- 2 March 1867 –3 Acts passed including: tried under the Enforcement Acts as well as those who had
o Military Reconstruction Act passed over Johnson’s presidential veto been convicted and were still serving their sentence.
(Start of Congressional Reconstruction). - 1875 CR Bill was limited as in their desperation to pass it
Invalidated State governments approved by Johnson May Republicans left it in a weakened state – limited protection
1865-March 1867 soon stripped by courts.
Divided former confederate states into 5 military districts.
New state governments had to meet terms to be recognised by
Congress.
o Command of the Army Act – required all Johnson’s orders to army to
go through army HQ (under Rep supported Ulysses S. Grant)
o Tenure of Office Act – Required consent of Republican dominated
Senate for the President to remove any office-holder.
- Effect of 2 March 1867 Acts – (Temporarily disenfranchised 15% of potential
white voters and enfranchised 703,000 former slaves.
- July 1868 – 14th Amendment ratified
o Gave all US citizens equal protection of the law
- 1870 – Enforcement Act:
o Federal Crime for 2+ persons to deprive any person of a right of
citizenship or punish them for exercising it.
- 1871 – Second Enforcement Act:
o Placed election of Congressmen under surveillance of federal election
officials
- 1871 – Third Enforcement Act/KKK Act:
o Gave President and federal troops the power to suspend habeas corpus
and arrest KKK members
o Made interference with citizens’ CR a federal crime (guaranteed a
more objective hearing than if the case was held in Southern state
courts)
- 15th Amendment Ratified 1870
Supreme Court - 1866 – Ex Parte Milligan
(SCOTUS) o SCOTUS ruled that special military courts set up
by the Freedmen’s Bureau in defence of AA were
unconstitutional and an overextension of states’
rights.
, - 1873 – Slaughterhouse Cases
o Ruled that the 14th Amendment protected the rights
of national citizenship (e.g., right to interstate travel
or safety on the seas) but not rights received by
state citizenship.
o Meant FG could not safeguard the political rights
of AA.
- 1876 – US v. Reese
o SCOTUS stated that the 15th Amendment did not
give the right to anyone but just barred states from
using race-based reasons to disqualify voters.
o Also declared parts of the Enforcement Act
unconstitutional.
- 1876 – US v. Cruikshank
o SCOTUS reversed the criminal convictions for the
perpetrators of the Colfax Massacre (said this had
to be done in state courts)
o FG could now no longer use the 1870 Enforcement
Act to prosecute actions of paramilitary groups.
- As a result of these decisions AA in the South were left to
the mercy of increasingly hostile state governments
dominated by white Democratic legislatures.
Individual Presidents - December 1863 – Lincoln began Reconstruction with the Proclamation of - 14 April 1865 – Abraham Lincoln executed
Amnesty and Reconstruction - 29 May 1865 – Johnson’s first Reconstruction proclamation
- gave a general pardon to former confederates willing to take
an oath of allegiance to USA.
- August 1865 – Johnson overrode “Special Field Order
No.15”, returning land confiscated by William T. Sherman
(to be redistributed to newly freed slaves) to its previous
owners in exchange for them swearing loyalty to the Union.
- May 1872 – Grant’s Amnesty Act restored political rights to
about 15,000 ex-Confederates.
- Grant and the Republican Party were blamed for the
Economic Depression.
- 1875 – Republican Governor of MS appealed to Grant for
fed troops to suppress white terror groups in State Elections.
o Grant refused and later admitted that Dems won the
1875 election using fraud and violence.
- 1876 – Presidential election was disputed – Hayes was
inaugurated if he:
o Appointed a Southerner to his cabinet
o Recognise Dem governments in 3 disputed states
(FL, SC, LA)
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