Reconstruction Video Post: 

This video begins with the statement that the Reconstruction Era is the lynchpin for the anti-black hate crimes of the modern day. America after the Civil War was supposed to be a hopeful time. The Emancipation Proclamation had the executive branch on the side of abolition, the war had ended, and the Reconstruction amendments were passed. 

A spirit of hope was alive in the spirits of the African Americans. However, as the video stated: they had no idea what cliff they were headed towards. The slaves were freed, but where were they to go? The government was grappling with process of Reconstruction, and it soon became clear that the North and South had different ideas of what Reconstruction would look like. 

The surrender at Appomattox was merely the beginning of a tenuous struggle for peace. Newspaper ads began emerging highlighting the separation of slave families during the peculiar institution. When Lincoln suggested that black men could vote, he was assassinated for having those views. 

Enter Andrew Johnson, a man that no one believed would ever become President. He was the first President to gain power as the result of an assassination, and while Congress was out of session, he had all the power. 

Johnson's views were complicated. He was a poor white Southerner who hated the planter class and believed that they were to blame for all of the countries' problems. Johnson even had racist tendencies, unwilling to shake the hand of Fredrick Douglas. How were these views to affect the Reconstruction process?

While Congress was in recess, Johnson decreed that wealthy Confederates would have to personally beg him for a pardon. Johnson enjoyed having the people that he hated beg for forgiveness and eventually gave all of the land belonging to the Freedman's Bureau back to the newly pardoned Confederates. 

The Freedman's Bureau was an organization that attempted to give former plantation land to the newly freed African Americans, however the land was redistributed as a result of Johnsons' pardons. This had a devastating impact on black progress, as the African Americans were forced to enter into labor contracts working for many of their former owners. It was not "slavery" but it was pretty darn close. 

Not only were the African Americans consigned to a life of servitude yet again as a result of Johnson's poor reconstruction policies, many Southerners still clung desperately to their old way of life. This was what truly unified the Confederacy for the first time. 

The creation of the Black Codes during this period ensured that there was as little change from slavery as possible. Not only were African Americans forced to enter into labor contracts with white owners, some African American children were forced to enter into apprenticeship and were separated from their parents, subjecting them to physical and sometimes even sexual abuse. The Black Codes ensured that African Americans stayed subordinate forever. These are the effects of 6 mere months of Reconstruction under Andrew Johnson.

Additionally, Confederate generals and plantation owners were allowed to represent their states in Congress again after "meeting Johnson's terms".  Congressional Republican Thaddeus Stephens found this abhorrent. 

The very moment that the 39th Congress came into session, the clerk refused to acknowledge the Southern delegates, effectively terminating their membership in Congress. This began Congress' prominent role in Reconstruction. 

Tensions were mounting in the country, as Congress was in an explosive position, and freed people were moving toward cities. The riots in Memphis and New Orleans were horrific and opened the eyes of the Northerners to the fact that Johnson's reconstruction plan was a failure. 

Congress passed the 14th Amendment which forever changed the rights of freedmen and all American citizens. The issue was how to get the Southern states to ratify, however the 1866 midterms provided a solution: Republicans gained a majority in Congress and began to enact a new phase of reconstruction: Military Reconstruction. 

The southern states were split into districts and ruled by a US general. They were given the ultimatum that in order to gain their representation in Congress, they would have to pass the Reconstruction amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments). This was a huge step forward in the Reconstruction process. 

The 1868 Presidential election was a hopeful moment, with the election of Republican Ulysses S. Grant and the election of dozens of African Americans, who had been slaves a mere years earlier. The end of the decade provided an glimmer hope for black progress, however the future would bring even more turmoil for race relations
in America.