Reconstruction to Renaissance Unit 4

Reconstruction Reconstruction was basically a time period in which the federal government aided war refugees, established schools, supervised contracts between white employers and black employees, and helped former slaves buy land. Also, a civil rights bill was passed in 1866.

Southern Reconstruction Black codes- legislature of the southern states created in to re-assert white control over blacks. The Right to own property was restricted, the right to vote was denied, things were just like slavery. Freedmen’s Bureau-an agency of the federal government designed to aid war refugees, and establish schools.

The Right to vote Under reconstruction, African-Americans were given the right to vote in Ten years later, the right was taken away by Rutherford B. Hayes, the new president. The deal was made between the republicans and southern voters. Republicans decided to end Reconstruction in order to get southern support for Hayes.

These years were described as the decades of disappointment. All civil rights legislation was declared unconstitutional. In 1896, Congress put segregation into effect.

Booker T. Washington Principal of the Tuskegee Institute. Spoke at the Cotton State Exposition in Atlanta, GA. He wrote an autobiography entitled Up from Slavery to show that black men can do for themselves if given a chance to obtain an education and worthwhile jobs.

Booker T Washington He believed that by accepting the current political system and by supporting whites desire for social separation of the races, improved economic opportunities would be provided.

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois Professor of sociology at Atlanta University Challenged Booker T. Washington’s ideals Wrote The Souls of Black Folks (1903) How can civil rights be obtained by giving them up?

W.E.B. Du Bois Niagra Movement 1905 Later named NAACP 1910 Editor of the Crisis

Literature after reconstruction Black writers were urged to show all aspects of African-American life. W.E.B. Du Bois challenged writers to write about the “talented tenth” as well as poorer African-Americans

Important figures Booker T. Washington W.E.B. Du Bois Paul Laurence Dunbar Ida B. Wells