Reconstruction and Constitutional Amendments: Paving the Path for Equality

1. reconstruction When the nation had to be rebuilt and unified after the Civil War.

2. The 13th Amendment: Gave freedom to all the slaves. People who used to be slaves were called freedmen. The 14th Amendment Made everyone born in the United States a citizen. Promised all citizens equal treatment Constitutional Amendments

3. The 15th Amendment Gave all citizens the right to vote. Constitutional Amendments

4. The Republicans controlled the Governments and the military in the Southern States They Impeached Lincoln’s Vice-President when he was too lenient with the South. They set up the Freedman’s Bureau to help African-Americans. Radical Republicans

5. Failure of Reconstruction White Democrats fought to take rights away from Freedmen and get control of the South.

6. Literacy Tests: You had to be able to read and write to vote. Poll Taxes: You had to pay a tax to vote. Something Called a Grandfather Clause let whites avoid these restrictions. They put restrictions on voting

7. They passed “Jim Crow” Laws that separated blacks and whites. Segregation

8. Plessy v. Ferguson The Supreme Court allowed the Southern States to Segregate

9. They used violence to intimidate African Americans. Intimidation • Lynchings • The Ku Klux Klan.

10. Reconstruction was ended in 1877. The End