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Racial Suppression
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Racial suppression in Post-Civil War America did not stop despite the efforts made by anti-slavers to eliminate slavery and secure equality for all people. History Reconstructed Southern Governments Immediately following President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, his Vice President Andrew Johnson took over. Under his government former confederate states were brought back into the Union on terms favorable to the former slave-owners. The newly admitted states of the south quickly elected many of the primary advocates of Southern secession to important government positions. These new governments denied equality to the many African Americans freed by the war. The reconstructed southern governments began passing laws that further emphasized the inferiority of freed people. These laws, known as “Black Codes,” denied African Americas many civil rights. Having lost approximately 620,000 American lives trying to bring an end to slavery, a group of powerful Republicans in congress (Radical Republicans) fought for the civil rights of freed-people. They eventually reduced President Johnson, a supporter of a lenient plan for reconstruction, to a lame duck status. Congress then passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, removing all former confederate states from the Union. In order for these states to be readmitted, they had to meet certain requirements which included ratifying the Fourteenth amendment and permitting black men to vote. Radicals' Efforts The changes brought about by the Radicals' efforts seemed at first to be working. These new governments provided free public schooling for all and established other institutions that worked to promote economic development for whites and African Americans alike. Mississippi actually elected a freed slave to the U.S. Senate. However, this didn't last long. Internal divisions between Northern "carpetbaggers" and Southern "scalawags" caused many of these reconstructed governments to fail. Republicans in Congress attempted to arm the freed-people with the tools to take care of themselves. These tools came in the form of the Fourteenth amendment, the Fifteenth amendment, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Despite these efforts, the government was limited by the Constitution. Most felt that enforcing these laws federally overstepped acceptable boundaries of the federal government, leaving it up to the states to enforce the new laws. When democratic propaganda took root, many Southerners who had supported Reconstruction governments turned against them leaving the new laws useless in the southern states. As a result of the federal governments unwillingness to step in and forcefully support black rights, many white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, the White League, and the Knights of the White Camelia emerged. White militias formed and marched through black areas, republican meetings, and made appearances at polling booths to ensure that votes would be cast for the Democratic candidate. In the Presidential election of 1876, the Republicans made a compromise known as the "compromise of 1877" They traded a promise the leave the South alone for an electoral victory for Rutherford B. Hayes. This essentially took all power from African Americans in the south. Pretense of Freedom George King, a former slave, remembered how he was told of his freedom: "The Master he says we are all free, but it don't mean we is white. And it don't mean we is equal. Just equal to work and earn our own living and not depend on him for no more meats and clothes." Former slave owners wanted freedmen to believe that the only ones who could actually succeed were those who were hardworking, sober, honest, educated, and who served their employers faithfully who respected property, and the sanctity of contracts, who were thrifty, clean, temperate and led moral, virtuous lives. So while all men were essentially "free," this in no way made them equal in the eyes of most white southerners. Violence Lynching, legal execution, and imprisonment were just three ways that white southerners responded to alleged black defiance. A white man from Memphis said, "We whites have learnt to protect ourselves against the negro, just as we do against the yellow fever and the malaria--the work of noxious insects." Most were not opposed to resorting to violence as a means of suppression on the premise of protection. There are countless records of mobbings, robberies, and even violent murders. See Also
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