assassination - the murder of an important political figure, Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, April 14, 1865

…the life-blood from those veins, the best and sweetest of the land, drips slowly down, and death’s ooze already begins its little bubbles on the lips.…

Vice-President Andrew Johnson is now President -from the South -a Democrat (most members of Congress are Republicans)

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) American poet, essayist, journalist

Living Conditions is the South 250,000 soldiers killed, railroads, cities, homes, and plantations destroyed, Confederate money worthless, plantation owners broke, no jobs for former slaves

sharecropping -freedmen farmed white landowners’ land using supplies provided by the landowner in exchange for a share of the harvest

black codes -laws passed by southern states that limited rights of freedmen who could not vote, own guns, serve on juries, and could only work as servants or farm laborers

Political Conditions -former Confederate leaders getting elected to state governments and Congress, northern Republicans want to punish white southerners and protect rights of former slaves

Military Reconstruction - divided the South into five military districts commanded army generals, southern states had to ratify the 14th Amendment, African Americans had to be allowed to vote in all southern states

Civil War Amendments 13th -banned slavery throughout the nation, 14th -granted citizenship to all people born in the U.S., 15th -no citizen may denied the right to vote because of race

Southerners who had been loyal to the US during the Civil War. Scalawags: Southerners who had been loyal to the US during the Civil War. Carpetbaggers: Northerners who moved South to hold office or take advantage of economic opportunities in the South.

The White League and the KKK team up to make conditions for freedmen unbearable. They used violence and fear to control freedmen.

murder committed by a mob without due process Lynching: murder committed by a mob without due process The following photographs are graphic. You may look away.

Reconstruction’s End -northerners grew weary of trying to change the South, they want to forget the war, corruption in Grant’s government caused northerners to lose faith in the Republicans, white southerners vote only for the Democratic party, denied African Americans the right to vote

In 1877 the U.S. withdraws from the South and Reconstruction officially ends. Conservative white southerners gain control of state governments and pass laws restricting voting. -poll taxes -literacy tests Grandfather Clauses allow poor/illiterate white southerners to vote.

Jim Crow Laws -laws that created separate facilities for blacks and whites (schools, restaurants, trains, hospitals, theaters, etc.)

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) -the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal as long as facilities for blacks and whites were equal, which they rarely were

racism -the belief that one race is superior to another, victims may be subject to mental or physical abuse, discrimination, segregation, or murder

segregation -separating people of different races in schools, housing, and public or commercial facilities as a form of discrimination

discrimination -unfair treatment of a person or group because of their race

prejudice -irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group based on race, or religion

dehumanization process by which members of one group remove human traits from members of an opposing group, making them seem less than human -can lead to violence, human rights violations, and genocide