African Americans After Reconstruction Dbq

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The Civil War brought upon the Reconstruction Era, the time in which the transformation of the Southern States took place in 1865 to 1877. This era brought social, political, and economical changes to American society and continued into the 20th century.

A major social change include segregation and poor treatment of African Americans. After the Civil War, African Americans were restricted to separate but equal accommodations. For example, document 6 is a photograph of two water fountains after the Reconstruction Era, one is labeled "white" and the other "Colored". The one labeled "white" is larger and clearly in better condition. This shows that despite African American being equal, they were separated from white people and were thought of as lower rate citizens. However, directly after the war, the treatment of African Americans was at a disgusting low. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was an organization that terrorized people of color to keep them from
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In 1877 the South changed." Instead of a South devoted to agriculture and politics, we find a south wide- awake to business..." This shows that the South changed its priorities and focus. In addition, to the South's priorities changing, there was a shift in the role of African-Americans from 1860 to 1880 due to sharecropping. Sharecropping was when former slave owners allowed former slaves to live on and use their property as tenants in exchange for crops. Documents 4 demonstrates this dramatic change, Barrow Plantation in 1860 had no tenants, just housing for slaves, as opposed to Barrow Property in 1880 that had an abundance of tenants. This change occurred because formerly enslaved people now needed shelter, forcing them to be tenants at former slave owners' property. The Reconstruction Era clearly affected the South