Racism Uncovered (Part 3): Reconstruction and the Jim Crow Laws Era

Part 3: Reconstruction

In this series, Racism in America, I aim to discuss the history of the United States with a focus on the topic of racism, both systemic and individual racism. Through this series, I hope to play a part in fighting the issue of racism that still persists in our society today. This series was inspired by the Black Lives Matter protest movement.

In the previous post in this series, we talked about the Civil War and also briefly Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. However, despite efforts to reintegrate former slaves (and Black people) back into society after abolition via the aforementioned amendments, it was way easier said than done.

It is important to note that the political climate was different at the time compared to the present day. For example, President Lincoln, who had been assassinated shortly after the Civil War, was a Republican. At the time, Republicans were for abolition, reintegration of Black people into society, and Reconstruction in general. The Democratic Party was conservative at the time and was against Reconstruction. The party shift we have today only happened following the 1960s.

Following the Civil War, a large part of America, especially the South was in ruins. Reconstruction was an effort to reunite America as a whole. Reconstruction programs included building new roads and railroads, improving transportation, funding public schools, raising taxes (interestingly, the U.S. policy of citizenship-based taxation was introduced during the Civil War), and establishing charitable organizations. The Democratic Party and other conservative institutions called the Republican government corrupt. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a white supremacist terrorist organization closely aligned with the southern Democratic Party was responsible for instigating violence against and murdering Republicans and freed Black people.

Although President Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican, wiped out the KKK due to increasing violence in the South, white Democrats gained control of the South slowly. A recession in 1873 resulted in Democrats making large gains in the North, causing frustration and resentment. By this time, it was clear that Reconstruction had failed.

This resulted in Jim Crow laws to be enacted by numerous states, especially in the South, which mandated racial segregation and removed political gains made by Blacks during reconstruction, such as making subjective literary tests for voting, making it impossible for Blacks to vote. These laws were even upheld by the Supreme Court in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, where they issued the commonly known “separate but equal” doctrine (we will go into detail of this SCOTUS case in a future blog post). The doctrine said that segregation of races was legal as long as the facilities (including transportation cars, schools, restrooms, restaurant seating, the military, etc.) provided to both Whites and Colored people were “equal.” However, most of the time, facilities used by Black people were of inferior quality compared to those used by Whites. The Jim Crow laws essentially made colored people second-class citizens.

In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded, with the main goal of giving civil rights to Black Americans.

However, in 1913, President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, despite fierce opposition from White progressive groups and the Black community, enforced racial segregation within the Federal Government workplace. Racial segregation continued in full swing throughout the early 1900s.

In the next post in this series, we will discuss how the Civil Rights Movement began, the implications it had on American society, and what we can learn from it.