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Major success of the Reconstruction with the 3 constitutional Amendments that were passed during the Reconstruction Era. The 13th Amendment in 1865 ratified and abolished slavery. Which the majority of the population did. Here we have a constitution amendment that will end slavery everywhere once and for all. But, that's all the 13th Amendment says but it doesn't say what happens to slaves once they are “accepted” into society. We have to look pass what the amendment says and look at the actual effects to understand the importance of how it affects society. Even with this amendment freeman were still treated poorly since most Southerners stuck to their old ways.
The Grandfather Clause says if your grandfather was able to legally vote, so can you. Whatever it took, the South came up to deny the freemen the right to vote. When 100 years later it still happens with the Civil Rights Movement. South found ways around each of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments so they could show their strength in many ways. Now how come the North allowed the South to get away with this well the Zeitgeist played a big part as well. The North didn't believe in equality in some cases. If the North doesn't believe in that principle the South can get away with their actions. These amendments can be used for politicality. Each southern state was required to ratify each one of these amendments before they were allowed back into the union. Now these amendments are still in the constitution and they affect us no matter what. It was a short-term favor but a long-term success. We can agree that there's still racism in modern times, but it's better than what it was 100 years ago. The South didn't stop with just these legal circumventions of these amendments the South also devised an extra-legal way to fight back. The anonymous Ku Klux Klan. the KKK was founded during reconstruction in the South by Nathan Bedford Forest from the Pillow Massacre.
Now after the Civil War, he is the first grand wizard of the KKK. He represents the Southern lives. This organization was founded by the wealthy southerners. Because they think reconstruction is a threat to them. They have been in charge down south forever. They don't want to lose that power. They see the change as a threat to their way of living. So the clan is a reactionary organization designed by these men to maintain their economic, and political control. It becomes a racist organization. Because the elite can not fight back on their own, they would need the support of the people down south. Logically the common whites supported what the common folk whites and blacks banned together and embraced the reconstruction it could bring in money, investment, and opportunities. But the common white folk say that reconstruction is bad and we need to unite and doc these damn Yankees from coming down to the South and telling us what to do. the elite convinced the common folk to deny reconstruction was the same way they convened slavery to happen.
They use racism as a tool to manipulate the common white folk into going against their self-interest. So think of racism as just the means which by the clan manipulates public opinions into opposing reconstruction. The clan targeted any black people especially those who were trying to become educated, those who were trying to vote, and those who were trying to promote themselves of opportunity. Blacks would be targeted and so would anyone else who tried to help them and go against the KKK. they believed that everyone has to know their place in this world. North and South people who believed in the reconstruction were also targeted as well. Clan called them Scalawags, southerners who supported reconstruction, they viewed them as traders. The clan also eventually started burning crosses at certain locations for a reason. This reason was meant to intimidate others from going against the clan. This is weird because they consider themselves to be a Christian organization and that doesn't seem to be very Christian burning down crosses. it's a threat. Violence would proceed and so would lenches. At the height of clan activity, there were 2 to 3 lynchings a week down in the south.
They were public! The clan was successful. If a black man ran to the sheriff to complain about a cross burning it wouldn't help them because that sheriff would be part of the clan. So there weren't many resources for blacks to fight back against the clan. We didn't pass any anti-lynching laws until the late 1950s. So the clan succeeded in another way the South successfully went against the North. As a result, the clan having achieved their objectives, went underground and ceased to exist. The clan would resurface. The clan of today is nowhere near the same power as they were in the past, but still, they were around. The clan is more of a laughing stock, but not gone and every once in a while they come alive and start creating trouble. We have seen an increase in white supremacists in political acts. In public protest, the clan of today does not limit themselves to just blacks but to all nonwhite people. The clan is different today than in the past because of who leads the clan. The clan is no longer run by the elite. Their more ignorant hicks that just like to make a mess in situations they have no business being at. The zeitgeist has moved on. It's no longer politically acceptable to be racist in our society.
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