Why Did Reconstruction Fail?

The time period of reconstruction has not proven itself able to achieve the social, political, and economic policies it intended to although many alterations to federal documents occurred to ensure that African Americans would be granted the many civil and votings rights they deserved as American citizens they are a plethora of social values amongst the majority of Americans citizens such as white supremacy that hindered these advancements. Regardless of the fact that African Americans were granted rights on paper, they were far from being treated equally, terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan targeted African Americans and many state laws were created providing loopholes to the 13th, 14th, and, 15th amendments making African American “freedom” limited during the reconstruction period.

During Reconstruction there were many alterations made in-laws that granted African Americans rights that they did not have access to such as the 13th amendment which was responsible for freeing the slaves and the 14th amendment which was responsible for giving them rights, these laws will remain a revolutionary in the fight for equality within races but unfortunately, these laws were not able to achieve its goals because blacks continued to confined by other laws such as the black codes found in several states with the main motive to restrict the freedom of African Americans.

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For example, in Louisiana the black codes section 2 allowed people to bind themselves to a five-year contract to work as a domestic servant (doc 8) allowing for a new form of slavery in which people did hard labor and got paid very little for it.

Discrimination against African Americans was prevalent during the time of reconstruction with the rise of the Ku Klux Klan African Americans safety as united states citizens were tested leading to the force act of 1870 which was one of the two acts the other being the second force act both were responsible for protecting African Americans rights to be respected and protect the voting rights of African Americans by charging anyone who was found guilty of hindering blacks rights, Although all of the reinforcements were made to help African Americans, there were still many issues and disagreements upon the viewpoints of the American people.

Overall Reconstruction did not achieve the social, political, and economic policies it intended to although the civil rights act, the ratification of three new amendments, and the creation of the force acts all had the intent to help give African Americans freedom and equality they deserved and protect them from harm legislation failed to socially protect African Americans seeing that they were often look down upon and rarely treated as equals. The Black Codes put the recently freed slaves back in almost the same position as they were just in contradicting the many laws responsible for the protection of African American rights. In addition to the failure of the amendments to protect African American rights was the Ku Klux Klans' constant terrorist acts towards African Americans adding to America's inability to achieve the social, political, and economic intended policies.