The concept of the Reconstruction was a “second founding” of the nation is based on the results of the Reconstruction. David Blight states in his lecture that the Reconstruction represented “… great change, great experimentation, change…” and the leadership “… rewrote the country you live in.” What evidence is there to support Blight’s argument? Foner’s A Short History of the Reconstruction provides some evidence. According to Foner, the Reconstruction Act inspired blacks where they achieve some type of parity with whites. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments would give some support to Foner’s belief. Elections to political office, prosperity in business, and mobility were part of this idea of Blight’s, but there was another side to this that was felt more strongly within America. …show more content…
The counterrevolution Blight speaks of defines the second founding for the freedom the blacks achieved was in effect short lived even with the changes in law. I would imagine the opinionated Blight had some subtle cheap shots about President Johnson, similar to those he had emitted in his course about the political groups he disagrees with. It is Johnson, the head of a country, who could have altered the direction this “second founding” would take. Blight, without much of an argument from me, ranks Johnson a “minus two on the list of presidents.” Other than the few minor “cheap shots” made about Johnson, there was one statement that Blight makes that gives an indication of the black plight after the Civil War; “He was not only not anti-slavery, he was an open racist.” Johnson believed America should be a white man’s country forever, even though originally it was controlled by another
What I believe Blight wants us to see that he takes from this book. Is the way he looked at how presidents engaged the civil war and how slaves and ex-soldiers reacted to certain situations. Blights will analysis the Civil War as reconciliationists, white supremacist, and emancipationist. We will know that all of these ideas will combine over time. How he describes reconciliationist is how the war caused a lot of damage and death.
Johnson's speech argues that there is “no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem.” stating that we as a nation are bringing conflict towards one another simply due to the fact we are not the same color. He urges the people not based on their positions but rather the fact that they are all Americans and he wants the freedom that their past ancestors died for to be granted to every man and woman.
Even though America was a democracy, the poor which were Black, Asians…didn’t have the right to vote. Because of all of the above, president Johnson wanted to change
Both the Presidential Reconstruction and Congressional Reconstruction agreed that the abolition of slaves and giving Africans the right to vote was absolutely essential for the Union. However, they both disagreed on how quickly this should be applied to the government. President Abraham thought that this should be a slow process. Many people thought that this was strange and went against everything that he had originally fought for. Yet, Lincoln was using the idea that if you slowly allowed Africans to vote and become citizens then there would be less violence.
This indicated that they had no real power to influence any of the changes being enforced by the federal government. This would damage Johnson’s civil rights effort because it implies that he had chosen the people on the basis of their skin colour rather than ‘for their competence, wisdom and courage’ as he had claimed. This would have had a negative impact on his civil rights effort as it meant that these high profile appointments were only surface gains as they did not influence or improve the lives of the majority of black Americans who earned an income of less than half of that of white Americans. This would also undermine Johnson claims that the appointments of these black Americans to major posts would give the young black children a sense of hope as it would demonstrate to them that there was no barrier to their success. This is because even though the intention was there, the fact these appointments had made no difference to their lives meant that there would still be economic problems and other issues related to poverty which may have limited their
Maceo Cardinale Kwik Reconstruction Reconstruction was the twelve years after the civil war. Those twelve years were full of readjustment fixing the ruin the United States had fallen into. The problems that had the United states in disarray were how to, rebuild the South, reunite the states, and ensure the rights and protection of the newly freed African Americans. The civil war left the South in shambles, and newly freed slaves struggled to adjust to their new freedom. Most Southerners hated reconstruction and everything else about the North.
”(Dallek, 1) johnson was the only president in american history to have lost a war. This is the reason why he is such a poor president in the ranks. LBJ knew that laws were not enough. Therefore was born the concept of affirmative action, Johnson’s
The Reconstruction was important to American history because it gave all different types of people their rights. The fourteenth amendment, The Dawes act and The Homestead Act all have things in common. All of these acts involve something to do with race and or forcing people out of their homes or land. The fourteenth Amendment gave men of color “equal” rights to white men.
But, when these officials were elected to Congress, they passed the “black codes” and thus the relations between the president and legislators became worst (Schriefer, Sivell and Arch R1). These so called “Black Codes” were “a series of laws to deprive blacks of their constitutional rights” that they were enacted mainly by Deep South legislatures. Black Codes differ from a state to another but they were stricter in the Deep South as they were sometimes irrationally austere. (Hazen 30) Furthermore, with the emergence of organizations such as the Red Shirts and the White League with the rise of the Conservative White Democrats’ power, efforts to prevent Black Americans from voting were escalating (Watts 247), even if the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S constitution that gave the Blacks the right to vote had been ratified in 1870.
President L.B.J. believed it was “the job of the states, not the federal government, to deal with those issues.” To clarify, President L.B.J. believed the states should decide what is “best” for their states, meaning a southern state could withstand discrimination against colored people. This would contradict his stance on the act as president before the presidential election. As a Senate Majority Leader, Johnson did not “directly oppose the civil right bill” however, he did help push through a provision stating that “anyone accused of violating the act would get a jury trial. ”(Holland 1964).
Reconstruction caused prejudice and inequality. To elaborate, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Codes were both in the time period of reconstruction, which caused chaos and violence throughout the Union. One of the goals of reconstruction was to repair the economy in the South, because it depended on slavery, which was now illegal, due to the thirteenth amendment. The South’s economic system now depended on Sharecropping, which caused former slaves to be in constant debt and was unjust to the black society. The reconstruction time period, was a time of dispute between the Union.
The American Journey was published by Glencoe and National Geographic in multiple cities (New York, New York was the first listed). The authors are Joyce Appleby, Alan Brinkley, and James McPherson, all of whom have PhDs. Appleby was a professor and historian at UCLA before she passed away. She was also involved with the American Historical Associated, and was also a writer. Brinkley attended Harvard and Princeton and later taught history at Columbia University.
Racism’s Impact on Reconstruction While the issue of slavery evidently contributed to the divide that resulted in the American Civil War, it is debated whether prevailing ideals of racism caused the failure of the era following the war known as Reconstruction. With the abolishment of slavery, many of the southern states had to reassemble the social, economic, and political systems instilled in their societies. The Reconstruction Era was originally led by a radical republican government that pushed to raise taxes, establish coalition governments, and deprive former confederates of superiority they might have once held. However, during this time common views were obtained that the South could recover independently and that African Americans
For example, he told Kennedy that in order to gain the black American’s support, he needed to show them that ‘the federal government stood behind their struggles’. Alongside this, the use of the telephone conversation between Johnson and Theodore Sorenson gives us the impression that Johnson felt that the Civil Rights bill of 1963 could have been improved and have been made ‘more constructive’. This indicates that Johnson’s intentions were sincere as it implies that he wanted to pass an effective and strong civil rights act. In addition to this, the fact Johnson was advising Kennedy on the issue could indicate that he had a much deeper understanding of the struggles faced by the Black Americans during this time than one would initially think. This suggests that Johnson’s civil rights effort were good as it implies that he was aware of the situations the Blacks were dealing with and wanted to do everything he could possibly do to improve this.
So then, what is now seen as the Reconstruction Era is now muddled by the thought of the U.S. being controlled in a disorderly manner by blacks; compared to the reality of Reconstruction explained by Eric Foner. One of the