America After The Civil War Blog

 

After the end of the Civil War, president Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and also helped ratify the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. This was a huge step forward for Black Americans in their long fight for freedom and equality. However, despite these advancements, many wanted to hinder the progress of Black Americans. Specifically, in the South, local governments created Black Codes and Jim Crow laws to stop Black Americans from becoming equal in the United States. Thus, the United States entered the Reconstruction Era, and all Black progress was hindered until the Civil Rights Era. 

The Ku Klux Klan came to power shortly after the start of the Reconstruction era and posed a huge problem for Black and White Americans alike. The Klan turned to violence in order to stop the revolutionary changes being made by the United States government for Black Americans. Along with the Klan, Black Americans also faced racial discrimination in daily life, as they had to fight for simple things such as equality on train cars. Plessy v. Ferguson hindered Black progress monumentally, as it established the doctrine of separate but equal. 

Overall, one of the overarching themes of the first episode was the idea of Black Americans struggling to fight for equality even after slavery was ended, and they were given the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. They truly struggled to fight for equality in American society, and it seemed like for every step they took forward, America created an obstacle that would take them two steps back. Although reconstruction helped heal and unite the United States geographically, culturally it would take decades for America to heal and accept Black Americans as equal throughout society.