Essay Database

Black Reconstruction Leaders This article is about the emergence of black politics and its eventual decline before and after Reconstruction. By the end of 1867 virtually every black voter that could vote was a member in the Union League or some other political organization. Political organizations served as a political school for blacks, a way for blacks to get deeply involved in politics, a way for blacks to have some control of their new found freedom, …

…of blacks, or join the Democrats in opposition, which would further alienate them from Northern Republicans. Even though blacks made up most of the Republican voters they were barred from the most important positions. At height, blacks during reconstruction envisioned a society with no racial distinctions. They felt that rights that were enjoyed by whites would have to be enjoyed by blacks. Anything less would be against the principals in which our country was founded.