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Black Codes
The black codes were laws that legislatures in the Southern states passed. These laws were made so that they could help the African Americans to own/rent farms. Some of the black codes let officals to fine or arrest African Americans because they did not have jobs. People said that life with the black codes were better than slavery. -
Civil Rights Act of 1866
This law gave the federal government the power to get involved with any state affairs to protect the African Americans. Also, it allowed citizenship to the African Americans. This act was meant to counter the Supreme Court decision in the 1857 case of Dred Scott vs Sandford. -
Reconstruction Acts
Since ten of the former Confederate states hadn't radified the 14th Amendment, the Congress passed the First Reconstruction Act. This act required those states to form new governments. The Second Reconstruction Act made the army to register votes in each district & to help organize state constitutional coventions. -
The Fourteenth Amendment
The 14th Amendment protected the citizenship extendede to African Americans by the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This Amendment said that they could take a person's life, liberty or property "without process of law." They also excluded the former Confederate leaders from holding any national or state office. Although some people thought that amending this Constitution to protect the African Americans was an extreme measure. -
15th Amendment
When the congress took another big step in the Reconstruction in 1869, they passed the 15th Amendment. This amendment guranteed that state & federal governments couldn't deny the right to vote any male citizen because of their race, color or previous condition of servitude. When the 15th Amendment was done, all the Republicans thought that their job was done because they thought they suceeded in giving African American men the right to vote.
