Thesis Statement : Although at the beginning of Reconstruction Congress attempted to help African Americans gain civil liberties, but after the Radical Republican group dissipated both Congress and the Supreme Cout began to undermine the chances for African Americans to receive their civil rights.
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- Freedman's Bureau Acts - The Freedman's Bureau Act was an act proposed to Congress to continue and increase funding for the Freedman's Bureau, a government founded organization that helped African Americans amnd poor whites in the South by giving out food and clothing to the impoverished. They also had set up numerous hospitals, schools, and teacher training centers. President Johnson vetoed this bill, an act that angered many moderate Republicans, which in turn brought a stop to presidential reconstruction, and the beginning of Congressional Reconstruction.
- Civil Rights Act of 1866 - Congress passed this civil rights act, which forbids any state to make laws that restrict the rights of African Americans, called black codes. They were first instituted in Mississippi and South Carolina, and many of the other Southern States quickly passed similar lawn in their state governments. Black codes could have likened the freedoms of an American American to those like slavery, without the right to carry weapons, serving on juries, marrying a white person, traveling without permits, and, in some states, they were not allowed to own their own property. President Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, saying that it was constitutionally out of his power to enact them, an act that angered many moderate Republicans. Congress overrode the veto, which in turn brought presidential reconstruction to a halt, and started Congressional Reconstruction.
- The 14th Amendment - One of the first things that happened during the period of Congressional reconstruction was that Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that all people that are born in the United States will always be a citizen of the United States, and that no state law could "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law", meaning that everyone born in the United States, including African Americans, are citizens. While this Amendment did not prohibit states from barring African Americans from the polls, it did say that any state that stopped a percentage of it's male citizens from voting, it would lose that percentage of their seats in Congress.
- Enforcement Act of 1870 - To stop the Klu Klux Klan, a racist organization that was created to terrorize and orb black American's of their civil rights, the Enforcement Act of 1870 was created, and it provided for the federal government to supervise elections in the southern states. This act was followed up by the Enforcement Act of 1871, which gave the President the power to dispatch federal troops to the areas Where the KKK was active. Although the Enforcement Act of 1871 was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the limited amount of anit-klan movement that was supported by the government did decrease the amount of Klu KLux Klan action in the United States by the late 1870's , the KKK had already reached its goal of alienating African Americans in the U.S.
- Civil Rights Act of 1875 - In an effort to make society more inclusive of African Americans, the Civil Right's Act of 1875 was passed, which prohibited exclusivity by race for services and things like public bathrooms and jury services
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3103
"Digital History." Digital History. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 June 2016.