 Violent opposition plagued the South  TERRORIST GROUPS IN THE SOUTH  KKK most active terrorist group  Members included planters, merchants, and poor white farmers and laborers  KKK wanted to restore old political and social order to the south

 Main target was African Americans  Both blacks and whites were terrorized by threats, house burnings, and more  KKK beat Freedmen’s Bureau teachers, men and women  A member of Congress from AK, and 3 GA legislators were murdered  KKK also attacked African Americans they thought were too economically successful

 State governments were unable to control the violence  Congress passed three ENFORCEMENT ACTS in 1870 & 1871  Laws set a heavy penalty, including jail, for anyone attempting to prevent a qualified person from voting.  They banned the use of disguise to deprive any person of rights

 The laws allowed the US Army and federal courts to capture and punish KKK members  This effort soon broke the power of the KKK but other groups would continue to operate.

 SUPPORT FOR RECONSTRUCTION DECLINES  White southerners claim the Enforcement Acts threatened individual freedoms  Northerners were dismayed that the army was still required to keep peace in the south  Conditions in the south strengthened the LIBERAL REPUBLICANS

 This group split from the party over the Enforcement Acts and scandals that plagued the Grant Administration  Grant was re-elected in 1872  Radical Republicans helped Democrats regain control of the House in 1874  The Republican majority in the Senate was cut in half  A 5-year depression began in 1873

 By mid-1870s reconstruction was on the decline  The main leaders of reconstruction, Rep. Thaddeus Stevens and Sen. Charles Sumner, had died  Supreme Court decisions weakened key part of the reconstruction program  1873—Supreme Court ruled in the SLAUGHTERHOUSE CASES that most civil rights/freedoms remained under state control

 In US vs. Cruikshank (1873), the Supreme Court said XIVth Amendment didn’t empower the federal government to punish whites for suppressing African Americans  In US vs. Reese (1876), XVth Amendment didn’t protect voting rights that were denied for reasons other than race

 “REDEEMING” THE SOUTH  As support for reconstruction declined, southern democrats became stronger and bolder  Terrorists publicly threatened, beat, and murdered Republican candidates  On election days armed democrats stole ballot boxes and drove African Americans from polling places

 MS governor asked for federal help but President Grant refused because he said the north was tired the south’s problems  1876—only SC, LA, FL under Republican control. Democrats controlled the others  THE ELECTION OF 1876  Southern democrats had a direct impact on the presidential election of 1876

 Ohio Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes (R) vs. NY Gov. Samuel J. Tilden (D)  Tilden narrowly won the popular vote and finished ahead in the electoral college  Tilden was 1 electoral vote short  20 electoral votes disputed from OR, SC, FL, LA  People claimed voter fraud in these states

 OR’s disputed vote went to Hayes  Democrats threatened to put Tilden in the White House by force—”Tilden or War”  January 1877—Congress created the Electoral Commission to solve the crisis  COMPROMISE OF 1877—Hayes would become President and the federal troops were withdrawn from the south

 14 th & 15 th amendments began permanent change in the South and North  NEW SOUTH—late 1800s & early 1900s—a time of industrialization and economic change  Supreme Court weakened protections of the 14 th and 15 amendments  If the Civil War was fought to settle states’ rights, reconstruction showed that it failed to do so.

RReconstruction intensified the hostility many white southerners had toward the Republican party 11870s-1970s—South was so strongly Democratic—SOLID SOUTH 11970s—Republican Party started to regain the level of support is has today TTHE END