1. Ch.12 Sec.2 The Battle Over Reconstruction pg. 426

2. A Growing Conflict
Andrew Johnson proposed a relatively lenient plan of Reconstruction
-He followed Lincoln's example.

3. The Thirteenth Amendment
In January 1865, congress approved a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery.
The 13th amendment banned slavery and forced labor.
The amendment gave congress the power to make laws to enforce its terms.

4. Johnson’s Plan
Johnson allowed southern states to organize new governments and elect representatives to congress.
Each states was required to abolish slavery and ratify the 13th amendment.
Congress quickly rejected Johnson’s approach.
In a series of Public hearings, the committee heard testimony about black codes.
Black codes: new laws used by southern states to control A.A

5. The Fourteenth Amendment
The struggle over Reconstruction led to direct clashes between the President and Congress during 1866.
Voicing Alarm at the treatment of African Americans in the South, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
President Johnson vetoed the bill and another one extending the life of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
Congress voted to overturn both vetoes, both bills received enough votes to become law.
Congress also drew up the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

6. The amendment failed at first to win the approval of three fourths of the state, then approved in 1868, after Radicals took control of Reconstruction.
The fourteenth amendment says that all people born naturalized in the U.S. are citizens and also states that a law can’t be passed the take away a citizen’s rights
another provision declares that any state that denies the vote of any male citizen over the age of 21 will have its representation in congress reduced.

7. Radical Reconstruction
Tempers rose as the elections of 1866 approached.
White rioters and police attacked and killed many A.As in two southern cities, Memphis and New Orleans.
Led Congress to push a stricter form of Reconstruction

8. Radicals in Charge
By early 1867, the Radical Republicans had won enough support from the moderates to begin a “hard” Reconstruction.
The Reconstruction Act of 1867 got rid of the government of all southern states that had refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, it then imposed military rule on these states, dividing them into five military districts.
Under military rule, the South took on a new look, soldiers helped register southern blacks to vote.
In five states, African American voters outnumbered white voters.
In the election of 1868, Republicans won all southern states.
In June 1868, Congress seated representatives from seven “reconstructed” states.

9. Time of Hope and Advancement
For the 1st time in the south A.As played a big role in politics.
Prominent among them were free-born A.As- carpenters, barbers, preachers, & Union soldiers some A.As were elected as sheriffs, mayors, judges, and legislators.
6 A.As served in U.S. house of Reps between 1872 & 1901.
Two others, Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce, served in the senate.

10. The Republican party built a strong following based on 3 key groups.
Historians once took critical view of radical reconstruction, focusing on the widespread corruption & excessive spending during this period.
However, they have written about important accomplishments of Reconstruction.
Radical reconstruction brought other sweeping changes to the south.
The Republican party built a strong following based on 3 key groups.
One group was called Scalawags: by their opponents, were southern whites who had opposed secession. Freedman made the second group. The 3rd group was carpetbaggers: the name given to northern whites who went south to start businesses or pursuer political careers.

11. Targeting President Johnson
The Radicals mounted a major challenge against president Johnson.
They tried to remove Johnson from office by impeachment.
Impeachment: the bringing of formal charges against a public official.
Johnson barely escaped Impeachment.
The house voted to impeach him on February 1868, the senate trial took place in March & went on until May, the voted ended with 35 for impeachment and 19 against impeachment.

12. The Election of 1868
General Ulysses S. Grant, won the presidential election for the Republicans in the fall of 1868.
With the southern states back with the Union under military rule, some 500,000 A.As voted for Republicans.
With his election the Radicals began losing there grip on the Republican Party.

13. 15th Amendment
Over opposition from Democrats, congress approved the 15th amendment in 1869, in 1870 after three fourths of the states approved it.
It banned any state from denying A.A males the right to vote.
Some A.As said the amendment was too weak.
It didn’t prevent states from requiring voters to own property or pay a voting tax.

14. Terror in the Night
Angry at being shut out of power, some whites resorted to violence.
They created a secret societies to terrorize A.As their white allies.
The Ku Klux Klan aka the KKK
Its members donned white robes with hoods that hid their faces, they took hundreds of lives during the election of 1868.
The terror when on ever after Congress responded with new laws.
The KKK acts of 1870 & 1871 barred the use of force against voters.
Even thought the Klan dissolved, new groups took its place.
Because of them less and less A.As were voting.
The stage was set for the end of Reconstruction.