Existing comment:
African Americans and the Vote
In the aftermath of the Civil War, Northern Republicans in Congress proposed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution that granted the newly freed slaves freedom, citizenship, and the right to vote, respectively. Several civil rights acts were also passed in an attempt to protect the freedom of the freed population. During the Reconstruction era, African American men participated in electoral politics as voters and as public officials. States in the South gradually adopted a variety of methods to disenfranchise black voters and instituted "Jim Crow" (segregation) laws mandating the separation of the races in practically every aspect of life. |