Civil Rights Act Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Civil Rights Act - Essay Example Reconstruction, also known as Radical Reconstruction, was the period after the American Civil War. During this time, the South was in political, social, and economic turmoil and eleven Confederate states had already seceded from the Union during the wartime unrest. In response, the Union attempted to regain order in the Confederate states during the Reconstruction era. The ex-slave states were divided into 5 military districts by the Reconstruction Act of 1867 and an assistant commissioner was appointed to each district. (McElrath 2008 Afroamhistory.about.com) After the Civil War, Congress established a Bureau for the refugees,Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, known as the Freedmen's Bureau. We find in McElrath's article that it provided with food, medical care, helped with resettlement, and very noble it established schools. Due to inadequate funds, corruption and inefficiency it closed in 1870.While the Freedmen’s Bureau worked to help Southern blacks, opposition to their new fr eedom was mounting. In 1865, several Southern states passed legislation creating black codes. Depending upon the state, these laws generally restricted blacks’ right to own property, controlled where they were allowed to live, established a curfew, and forced blacks to work as agricultural laborers or as domestics. The Black Codes were quickly eliminated with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The Act gave blacks the rights and privileges of full citizenship. (McElrath Afroamhistory.about.com 2008). ... agricultural laborers or as domestics. The Black Codes were quickly eliminated with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The Act gave blacks the rights and privileges of full citizenship. (McElrath Afroamhistory.about.com 2008). The Reconstruction Act of 1867 eliminated white controlled Governments. President Johnson, successor of Lincoln had reneged his promise to implement Lincoln's Reconstruction plan so that States could revise legislatures and implement less severe codes instead of eliminating all the black codes. With the Reconstruction Act, blacks were given the the freedom to participate in the political process. Black became ordinary 10489 4 to kill and torture the black. Affter the Reconstruction ended all changed at constitutional conventions, helped to write laws and became state legislators. In June 1866, Congress proposed the 14th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. It provided blacks with citizenship and guaranteed that federal and state laws applied equally to blacks and whites. With the passage of the Amendment, Congress also provided that Southern states could not be readmitted to the Union until it ratified the 14th Amendment. All of the states, except Tennessee, refused to do so. By 1870, however, the remaining 10 states ratified the 14th Amendment. (McElrath Afroamhistory.about.com 2008). In 1870, African Americans were given the right to vote through the 15th Amendment. According to this amendment, the right to vote applied to citizens regardless of race or color. Despite this right, some Southern states added grandfather clauses to their state Constitutions in an effort to counter this new right. Typical clauses stated that the right to vote extended only to citizens or