Was Reconstruction a Success? no

Yes State constitutions were the most democratic documents the South had ever seen. – Many Reconstruction critics claimed that radical Republicans were creating political chaos by allowing blacks to “run the show” However... Many state constitutions borrowed heavily from previous constitutions Land reform was seldom enacted Hiram Rhodes Revels became the first African- American elected to the U.S. Senate in 1870

Yes Taxes levied rebuilt the South’s transportation network. – A more equitable tax system was created by Radical Republicans that put a heavier burden on the planters. – War damage was repaired: bridges, roads, railroads President Andrew Johnson was nearly impeached and removed from office in 1868.

Yes Creation of several social service institutions. – State hospitals, prisons and insane asylums were created

Yes Creation of the public school system that benefited African Americans as well as whites. – South Carolina is one example: number of school children increased from 30,000 to 130,000

Yes Ratification of the 14 th and 15 th Amendments which guaranteed significant privileges of citizenship to African Americans in both the North and South. – Right to vote could only be denied by coercion, no longer by legal barriers. – Same with citizenship rights

No “Unfinished revolution” – (the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 1960s is commonly referred to by historians as “the Second Reconstruction.”) – Only “half emancipated” – It took another military intervention (national guard troops in several states) to ensure rights for blacks in Southern states (during the 1950s and 1960s)

No Failed to secure civil rights for African Americans. – Although civil rights were achieved in the 14 th and 15 th Amendments, within 20 years, many local Black Code and Jim Crow laws were enacted that took away civil rights – The Civil Rights Act of 1875 and the Force Act were both repealed

No Failed to secure political rights for African Americans. – Violence, specifically by the Ku Klux Klan, kept a large majority of Southern blacks disfranchised – The reactionary ruling elite created the “Solid South” that continued to exploit and deny blacks the right to vote for nearly a century

No Failed to secure economic rights for African Americans. – The tenant / sharecropping system that replaced slavery was not much of an improvement – Post-war land reform did little to reduce the influence of the planter class

No Republican Party was not a permanent force in the Reconstructed South. – By the 1880s, all radical Republicans had been voted out of office in the South and the “Solid South” had begun to tighten its grip upon politics for another 90 years.