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Black Codes
The Black Codes were laws passed in the south designed to help control the newly freed African Americans. Some of the codes made it illegal for the African Amerians to own or rent farms. Basically, it relates to race because the white people in the south still wanted to treat African Americans somewhat like slaves again. -
Civil Rights Act of 1866
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was a law that gave the federal government power to get involved in state affairs to protect African Amercians' rights. In addition, it granted citizenship to the African Americans. It relates to race because the law was meant to counter the Supreme Court descision in the 1857 case where the Supreme court had ruled that African Americans were not citizens. -
The Fourteenth Amendment
While the 13th Amendment banned slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment took a step up and stated that: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction therof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherin they reside." So basically, it relates to race because that meant that it protected the citizenship given to African Americans. Also, the citizenship could not be taken away. -
The Reconstruction Acts
The first Reconstruction Act was a law that required the Confederate States form new governments. But only Tenessee ratified the amendment, kept its' government, and rejoined the Union. The act divided the 10 defiant states into five military districts. The Second Reconstruction Act empowered the army to register voters in each district and to help organize state constitutional conventions. This relates to race because the first act allowed African American men to vote in state elections. -
15th Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment was meant to gaurantee that basically any man can vote, and it does not matter what race you are. When the amendment was ratified, the Republicans thought that they had succeeded in their job of gaining African American men the right to vote, which is how it relates to race. In addition, the Republicans thought that the power to vote would allow African Americans to better protect themselves against white people harassing them.
