Post Civil War
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"Keep the black man from the ballot and we'll treat him as we please,
With no means for his protection, we will rule with perfect ease." - Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer 1907 poem, "The Negro Ballot" |
The Reconstruction era led to new federal laws protecting blacks’ new-found freedom. Unfortunately, white supremacist groups convinced Americans of Negro inferiority, reinstated discriminatory state governments, and ultimately ushered in the Jim Crow era.
Reconstruction Era (1865- 1900)
Political
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Social
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Voting Bell Curve
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"Blacks could vote and elect their own leaders for a brief period during and just after Reconstruction. " - "Black Networks After Emancipation", Chay and Munshi |
 Source: United States Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division: Voting |
"...blacks were gradually disfranchised from the late 1880s through the 1890s as Jim Crow laws took e ffect." -"Black Networks After Emancipation", Chay and Munshi |
A Deadlock (1900-1920)
 Source: "Life Upon these Shores", Henry Gates, director of Afro-American Research at Harvard University
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"...The Birth of a Nation [a film] presented a version of American History that resonated with much of its white audience. (The Civil War had ended in disorder, and Reconstruction had brought "Negro Rule" to the South...chaos reigning) ... Africans Americans were enraged ... [it] dramatically energized the NAACP, but also galvanized white supremacists, who organized new racist political groups...which included the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan...The revived Klan suppressed African Americans with violence "
- "Life Upon these Shores", Henry Gates, director of Afro-American Research at Harvard University |
 Source: NAACP
 Source: Literary Digest, 1925
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