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Black Codes
In 1866, laws, called black codes, were passed in the South by legislatures to help control the newly freed African Americans. These laws were unfair to the African Americans. They could not own or rent farms, they could easily be taken advantage of, and they could be arrested if they did not have a job. To the African American's living in this time period, this was still better than slavery. -
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Trying to combat the black codes, Radical Republicans pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 through Congress. It would give the federal government power to get involved in state affairs to protect African American's rights and also granted African American's citizenchip. President Johnson vetoed the bill because of several reasons. Despite the fact that President Johnson had vetoed the bill, the representatives in Congress were able to override the veto and the bill became a law. -
First Reconstruction Act
In 1867, 10 of the former Confederate states had not ratified the 14th Amendment. To try to resolve this issue, Congress passed the First Reconstruction Act, which required those states to form new governments, and gave African American men the right to vote. The act divided the 10 states into five military districts governed by an army general until new governments were formed. -
Second Reconstruction Act
A Second Reconstruction Act let the army register voters in each district and organize state constitutional conventions. A large number of white Southerners refused to take part in the elections for the constitutional conventions, and newly regestered African Americans did not vote. As a result, the Rebublicans took control of the Southern governments. By 1870, all ten original states refusing to ratify the 14th Amendment set up new governments, ratified the Amendment, and rejoined the Union. -
14th Amendment
Congress proposed the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. It stated that African American's citizenship could not be taken away, nor by another law, and the state could not prevent any male citizen from voting. It also stated that a state could not take a person's life, liberty, or property without "due process of law" and that every person was entitled to "equal protection of the law." Some Southern states refused to ratiy the 14th Amendment at first so this delayed the ratification until 1868. -
15th Amendment
After the election of Ulysses S. Grant, Congress added to the Reconstruction process by propossing the 15th Amendment in1869. With the Amendment, state and federal governments could not deny the right to vote to any male citizen because of, "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The 15th Amendment was ratifed in 1870. The Republicans believed that they had given African American men the right to vote and that the power of the vote would help to protect them from unfair treatment.
