It was the end of the Civil War, with victory drawing near for the Union. Lincoln had just delivered an oration in Louisiana, one he didn’t know was going to be his last. General Robert E. Lee had surrendered only two days earlier at Appomattox Courthouse. Union victory seemed imminent. John Wilkes Booth disagreed. He had a dangerous plan to kill Lincoln and hopefully throw the Union into such a state of disarray that the Confederacy could rise once more. The first stage of Booth’s plan was successful. It was the first time in US history that a sitting president had been assassinated. Lincoln’s death propelled Andrew Johnson to the Oval Office, something that would prove to be one of the many factors in hampering the progress of the Reconstruction. Andrew Johnson, a democrat and lifelong believer in slavery, was chosen as Vice President by Lincoln specifically to show unity. Sympathetic to the Confederate cause, his rise to the Oval Office would prove to undo nearly all the work Lincoln had done. 

During the Civil War, neither Congress nor Lincoln had a concrete plan for the future of the reforged Union. Lincoln’s solution was the Ten Percent Plan. Proposed in December of 1863, the Ten Percent Plan was a temporary measure to establish government in the South. The Ten Percent Plan stated that should ten percent of the voting population in a southern state swear loyalty to the Union and support Emancipation, they would be allowed to establish a state government (Foner, 2017). It was originally meant to hamper the Confederacy and cause chaos during the war. Andrew Johnson and Congress simply took the Ten Percent Plan beyond the war, allowing governments set up during the Civil War to continue to exist rather than restructuring them following the Confederacy’s defeat.

The popular Union General Ulysses S. Grant ran for president in 1868, running on the slogan “Let Us Have Peace.” Grant, running for the Republican party, was supported in the South by Northerners who had moved during the Reconstruction and white republicans. However, his most significant supporters in the South were the Black Republicans who finally had the right to vote. In 1867, Congress ordered Southern states to eliminate racial discrimination in voting and, for the first time in US history, African Americans began to win elections en masse. For a short twelve year period, African Americans had political power in the United States6. A notable side effect of African Americans finally having representation was that the South briefly turned Republican due to the sheer amount of Black voters. The South turning Republican was momentous because historically, the South had been a stronghold for Democrats7. In addition, there were so many Black politicians that more than two thousand African Americans had served in a political position by the end of the Reconstruction (14. Reconstruction – the American Yawp, 2024). Black politicians wouldn’t emerge in such numbers again until late in the 20th Century. 

Southern Republican politicians led to many positive changes, including the establishment of the first state funded public schools. They also strengthened the bargaining power of plantation workers. Reconstruction governments made taxation more fair by shifting the burden of taxes to the wealthy elite and outlawed discrimination based on race in public transport and accommodations. Federal support for Reconstruction governments officially ended when Grant refused to send troops to Mississippi in 1875 to stop white supremacists from wreaking havoc on local governments to regain political control (Editors, 2009).

In the same time period, Congress passed the 15th Amendment in February of 1869, which stated that all men should have suffrage, regardless of race. They subsequently passed the Enforcement Acts of 1870-18718. One of them, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, made denying someone of their civil and political rights a federal crime (Unit 7 the Reconstruction Era, 1865-1877 | New Jersey State Library, 2011). The Civil Rights Act of 1875 further enforces equal rights by offering protection against segregation in public accommodations. The 14th Amendment brought equal rights which allowed the establishment of black churches. Support from the North and Freedmen’s Bureau only bolstered the spread of knowledge.

By 1876, Democrats had returned to power in all but three states. The Democrats managed to recapture power due to several factors, including the establishment of white supremacist groups9, the Panic of 187310, and racist attitudes in the North.  People in the North believed that getting a sectional reconciliation was better than the time and resources it would take to create an egalitarian society in the South (Unit 7 the Reconstruction Era, 1865-1877 | New Jersey State Library, 2011). Reconstruction officially ended in 1877, where vote disputes led both candidates to claim they won. Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican candidate, solved the dispute by promising to withdraw Federal troops from the South should he be elected. The inside deal was later named the Compromise of 1877.

The Reconstruction was a significant period for many. The Reconstruction led to such volatile disagreements that President Johnson became the first president to go through impeachment proceedings, a display of the constitutional principle of checks and balances. Black politicians emerged in numbers that wouldn’t be seen again until late in the 20th Century. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were established during this period. The creation of Birthright Citizenship, the abolishment of slavery, and the creation of free, public schools in the South all happened due to the Reconstruction.  The Reconstruction redefined what it means to be an American, voting rights, and other contentious issues. It is one of the reasons why you can sit in the same classroom as people of different races and be treated equally and respectfully. It is the reason why all have equal protection before the law. Policies laid down during the Reconstruction eventually helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Reconstruction was ultimately a period that reshaped how the U.S. functions on all levels. Although there is still a lot of inequality in the U.S., it is much improved from the racism and discrimination that African Americans faced before the Civil War.