Constitutional Amendments and Legislation
Expanding Civil Rights through Amendments
The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) granted African American men the right to vote by prohibiting federal and state governments from denying suffrage based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This was a landmark achievement, but it faced immediate resistance. Southern states quickly developed workarounds to suppress Black voting, including literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and outright intimidation and violence. The amendment established the legal principle, but enforcing it would remain a struggle for nearly a century.
Legislative Efforts to Secure Equality
Congress passed several key laws to protect the rights of formerly enslaved people:
- The Civil Rights Act of 1866 declared all persons born in the United States to be citizens, regardless of race or previous enslavement. It guaranteed equal protection under the law and basic property rights. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode his veto, marking one of the first major clashes between Johnson and the Radical Republicans.
- The Fourteenth Amendment (ratified 1868) wrote these protections into the Constitution itself. It defined citizenship to include all persons born or naturalized in the United States and prohibited states from denying any citizen due process or equal protection under the law. Congress pushed for this amendment partly because they worried a future Congress could simply repeal the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
Black Political Representation
Breakthroughs in National Politics
Between 1865 and 1877, over 1,500 African Americans held public office at the local, state, and federal levels. These positions ranged from justices of the peace and state legislators all the way to members of the U.S. Congress.
Hiram Revels became the first African American U.S. Senator in 1870, representing Mississippi. In a striking piece of symbolism, he filled the Senate seat previously held by Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy. Revels advocated for civil rights, education, and economic opportunities for freedmen, though he faced racism and hostility from some white colleagues.
Continued Progress in Political Representation
- Blanche K. Bruce was elected as the second African American U.S. Senator in 1874, also from Mississippi. He served a full six-year term (1875–1881), focused on issues like racial integration of the military and civil rights enforcement, and in 1879 became the first African American to preside over the Senate.
- P.B.S. Pinchback served briefly as Governor of Louisiana in 1872–1873, making him the first African American governor of a U.S. state.
- Robert Smalls, a formerly enslaved man who had famously commandeered a Confederate ship during the war, served as a U.S. Representative from South Carolina.
Black political representation declined sharply after Reconstruction ended in 1877, as Southern states implemented new restrictions on Black voting and white supremacist groups used violence to suppress political participation.
Reconstruction Organizations and Allies
Support Structures for Freedmen
The Freedmen's Bureau, established in 1865, was a federal agency designed to assist formerly enslaved people and poor whites in the South. It provided food, housing, medical aid, and legal assistance. One of its most lasting contributions was establishing schools for freedmen. The Bureau also helped negotiate labor contracts so that formerly enslaved people wouldn't be exploited by their former enslavers. It faced constant opposition from Southern whites and suffered from limited federal funding, which restricted its effectiveness.
Union Leagues were political organizations that promoted loyalty to the Union and supported Republican policies in the South. They organized political rallies, educated freedmen about their new rights, provided protection for Black voters, and helped mobilize African American support for Black and Republican candidates. These organizations were critical to building Black political power during Reconstruction.
Political Allies in Reconstruction
The Radical Republicans were a faction within the Republican Party that pushed for aggressive Reconstruction policies and strong civil rights protections. Key figures included:
- Charles Sumner (Senator, Massachusetts) and Thaddeus Stevens (Representative, Pennsylvania), who championed voting rights and, in some cases, land redistribution for freedmen
- Benjamin Wade (Senator, Ohio), who supported sweeping federal intervention in the South
The Radical Republicans clashed repeatedly with President Andrew Johnson, who favored a lenient approach to readmitting Southern states. They passed the Reconstruction Acts over Johnson's vetoes and ultimately impeached him in 1868 (though the Senate fell one vote short of conviction). They also backed Ulysses S. Grant's presidential campaign in 1868, seeing him as an ally who would enforce Reconstruction policies.