Thesis Statement : As the radical Republican group in Congress died out, action in Congress to help African Americans virtually slowed to a stop, as it was blocked by grassrot organizations and the Supreme Court.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/35b.asp
"Radical Reconstruction." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 03 June 2016.
- Black Codes - Black codes were a general name for law that restricted the rights and privilages in the United States, which were instituted mostly in the South. Black codes could range from discriminatory rights or laws prohibiting blacks from having the right to certain services.
- The KKK - The Klu Klux Klan began as a social group for former Confederate veterans, but as the organization branched out many of the newer chapters spread to almost all of the southern states. They used violence to discriminate against African Americans who had or would vote, and leaers that supported African Americans in politics as well as Politicians who were receiving the Black votes. While one of their goals was to frestore white supremacy, another was to take down the Rebublican Party, as they had started the Reconstruction, which had begun to welcome African mericans into the Unites States as citizens and equals.
- The Panic of 1873 - During Reconstruction, the economy was expanding exponentially, and many investors thought it would do so forever, so they rushed to take out loans to start businesses, companies, and factories. A broker named Jay Cooke decided to invest in railroads, and when he could not get enough investors to pay for the loans he had taken out, he went into debt and his banking form went bankrupt, and started a seires of financial problems. This caused an ecenomic depression that lasted five years, where many businesses were closed, and millions of people lost their jobs.
- US versus Cruikshank -The US vs Cruikshank Supreme Court Caseruled that the federal government did not have the right to punish individuals who had oppressed African Americans, which was a major setback to receiving equality during the Reconstruction. This case took place in the same year as the US vs Reese Case.
- US versus Reese - In this case, The supreme Court ruled that the fifteenth amendment did not give anyone the right to vote, but only stated the grounds that the right to vote was not to be discriminated on. This case took place in 1876, the same year that the US vs Cruikshank case was solved.
- Slaughterhouse Cases - In the Slaughterhouse cases, the Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendent only protected the rights of Citizens of the United States, like the rights of interstate travel and the rights to have federal protection when traveling overseas. The Court Stated that the Amendment did not protect those rights, that those rights were only applicable if you were a citizen of the United States.
- Problems in the Grant Administration - While the President elected in 1868 was a popular and honest person, he was formerly a war general, not a politician, which his supporters used against him to swindle money our of the people using the government. His Vice President, Schuylar Colfax, was caught taking a large amount of profits from a railroad company, and was eventually was exposed by the newspaper The New York Sun. Grant ran for office again in 1872, and was majorly opposed in the political realm by both the new Liberal Republican party and the Democratic party, but was stil popular inn the public eye, causing him to deal the Liberal Republican and Democrat parties candidate, Horace Greely, a smashing defeat. Afterward the scandals continued, one containing Grant's Private Secratry, General Orville E. Babcock, who was accepting bribes from whiskey distillers who did not want to pay their taxes, deprivingt eh govenment of a large sum of money. There were two more scandals, including the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy respectivily, which turned the public against Grant. Grant did not run for re-election in the election of 1876.
- Compromise of 1877 - The election of 1876 was indicisive, because the popular vote favored Tilden, the Domocratic parties' candidate, while the eloctoral collage vote supported the Republican parties candidate, Hayes. The Compromise of 1877 said that the democrats were willing to accept the defeat of their candidate with a few conditions, which were outlined by the Compromise of 1877. First, that federal troop would be withdrawn from Louisiana and South Carolina, secondly they wanted federal money to build a railroad from Texas to the West Coast, and also to improve rivers, bridges, and harbors in the South, and finally they wanted Hayes to appoint a Conservative Southerner into his cabinet.
- Northern Support Wanes - As the national political scene became mmore overwhelming, Northerners shifted their support to national issues, such as the Grant Administration and the Panic of 1837. As these issues becme more prominent, the north stayed mostly oblivious th the discrimination in the South, and they slowly began to become less involved with Reconstruction.
- Faltering of Congressional Support - At the tail end of Reconstruction, many in the United States were less concerned with the civil rights of African Americans, as all leislation passed to help them was weak or became uninforced. Now that the States were Unified whites in Congress started looking to national issues like the Panic of 1873 and the Scandals of the Grant Administration and the leading Radical Republicans were dead, the impotance of African American Rights began to abate in Congress.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/35b.asp
"Radical Reconstruction." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 03 June 2016.