The era of the reconstruction saw many steps in the lives of African- Americans in the United States. However they did not gain the rights and freedoms which they deserved. This era of pain and suffering lasted over a hundred years, until something was done about it following the civil rights movement.
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| A sharecropping family |
During the reconstruction, newly freed slaves were kept under a position of near slavery by laws passed in the south, the black codes. Due to the 10th amendment, the federal government could do nothing about these injust laws. Blacks were prevented from voting by polling tests, and taxes, which made it impossible for black citizens to vote. Also, these codes restricted blacks from buying land. All of this was not stopped becasue the successor of Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, had no interest in seeing to it that blacks had equal rights. The problem with all this was, that in the south, blacks had utterly no voice in politics. Whatever was made rule by the white politicans, was law. Due to this, African-Americans saw little progress. Many of these black codes stood in place until the civil rights movement of the 1960s. This was a serious problem for the African-Americans.
Sharecropping was a major issue that was being developed at this time. This was almost a loopoll in the laws, making the blacks as close to slaves as they could be. Basically, the white plantation and farm owners would give land to the former slaves to farm on. However this was not the freedmens land. The land still belonged to the farm owner, and thus a large portion of the proffit from the harvest had to be given to the farm owner. In this way, just as before, the plantation owners had a way of having others farm their land for them without having to pay much money. Slavery without the wips so to speak.
The civil rights movement was similar, yet different to the reconstruction era. Many of the same issues were being fought fought for, however the difference was, that now they were actually being fought for. The African- Americans finally had a voice, in that of Martin Luther King Jr. They now had someone who was willing to speak for the cause and fight for what he knew needed to be done. People such as him, and Rosa Parks, and many others were finally standing up, using their 1st amendments rights to stand up and rise together. This is no to say that this was time of violence and chaos, cause it mostly was not.African-Americans were still, the 1960s, fighting for the rights to vote. Thought over a hundred years had passed, they still were being blocked out of polling stations by strict regulations. Due to this, they had no way to put there own officials in office: thus the government was still in some portions radically against them. As seen through the case of Rosa Parks, African-Americans were not even allowed to sit in the front of the bus. This is absurd. The free nation, many times referred to as the best nation in the world, clearly had some major problems.
The African-Americans during this time however, were better educated: thus could now use new ways to fight their cause. Through the use of sit-ins, nonviolent protests, and civil disobedience, they made their message clear.
These people, though still being treated as the inferior race, now had a fighting chance. This is a major difference from the post civil war era. They had a voice to speak there message, and a means to fight until they had the rights that they deserved.
