The end of Reconstruction and Jim Crow
Reconstruction's gains were reversed in the late 1800s as white Southern governments imposed segregation and stripped Black Americans of voting rights.
Violence and the Ku Klux Klan
Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, founded in 1865-1866, used terror, including beatings, arson, and murder, to intimidate Black voters and white Republicans. Congress passed the Enforcement Acts (1870-1871), and federal prosecutions weakened the first Klan, but violence and intimidation continued across the South.
Northern retreat
By the 1870s, many Northerners grew weary of Reconstruction, distracted by economic depression after the Panic of 1873 and political scandals. Supreme Court rulings, such as the Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) and United States v. Cruikshank (1876), narrowed the protections of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Compromise of 1877
The disputed presidential election of 1876 was resolved by an informal deal: Republican Rutherford B. Hayes became president, and federal troops were withdrawn from the remaining Southern states. This ended Reconstruction. White Democrats, calling themselves 'Redeemers', regained control of Southern governments.
Disenfranchisement
Southern states used poll taxes, literacy tests (applied unfairly), white primaries, and grandfather clauses (exempting men whose grandfathers could vote before 1867) to keep Black men from voting. Violence enforced these rules. By 1900, Black voting in much of the South had almost disappeared.
Jim Crow segregation
Jim Crow laws required racial segregation in schools, transport, public places, and more. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court upheld segregation under the doctrine of 'separate but equal', although facilities for Black Americans were almost always inferior. The decision stood until 1954.
Lynching and resistance
Thousands of Black Americans were lynched between the 1880s and the mid-1900s, often for alleged offences without trial. Journalist Ida B. Wells documented lynchings and campaigned against them. Booker T. Washington urged economic self-help and vocational education; W. E. B. Du Bois demanded full civil and political rights and co-founded the NAACP in 1909.
The Great Migration's roots
Facing violence, segregation, and limited opportunity, Black Southerners began moving north and west. The Great Migration, which accelerated after 1915, eventually saw about six million Black Americans leave the South by 1970, transforming cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and New York.
Worked example
In 1890, a literate Black man in Mississippi tries to register to vote. The registrar asks him to interpret an obscure section of the state constitution and rejects his answer, while a white man is registered without questions. He also cannot afford the poll tax. Such laws were technically race-neutral but designed and applied to exclude Black voters.
Key takeaways
The Klan used terror against Black voters; Enforcement Acts only partly helped. Northern weariness and narrow Supreme Court rulings weakened Reconstruction. The Compromise of 1877 withdrew federal troops. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses disenfranchised Black men. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) upheld 'separate but equal'. Ida B. Wells fought lynching; Washington and Du Bois offered different strategies. Oppression fuelled the Great Migration.
Flashcard
Terrorist group founded 1865-1866
Check your understanding
What did the Supreme Court decide in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)?