Blacks And Whites example essay topic

Kevin J. Gomez The following is a brief attempt to examine the significant events in the Reconstruction Period: Reconstruction under President Andrew Johnson in 1865 was controlled and implemented entirely by him for the first eight months of his term since Congress had recessed. Johnson devised new state governments in the South using presidential powers vested upon him by Congressional legislation. Essentially, Johnson favored Secretary of War Edwin Stanton's plan to impose military authority and appoint provisional governors in furtherance of creating new state governments. The major stumbling block in Stanton's plan was giving voting rights to black men in the south.

Johnson favored states' rights to decide on male Black voting, but in reality, was anti-African-American (Norton, et. al., 1999,302). Johnson appointed provisional governors that drafted constitutions that abolished slavery, and restored states to the Union with full congressional representation. Under the congressional reconstruction plan, Johnson agreed to two modifications of his program: extension of the life of the freedman's bureau- which Congress had established in 1865 to feed the hungry, negotiate labor contracts, and start schools- and passage of a civil rights bill to counteract the black codes. This bill essentially would force southern courts to practice equality by allowing federal judges to remove from state courts cases in which blacks were treated unfairly. This was the first major bill to enforce the Thirteenth Amendment's abolition of slavery.

After a veto by Johnson and an override by Congress of the president's veto the bill became law (Norton, et. al, 1999,304). The Fourteenth Amendment addressed Reconstruction this way: Confederate debt was declared null and void, and the war debt of the United States was guaranteed. There was also strong support prohibiting prominent Confederates from holding political office. The Fourteenth Amendment conferred citizenship on freedmen (Blacks) and prohibited states from abridging their constitutional "privileges and immunities". It also included the "due process" clause that barred any state from taking ones life, liberty, or property "without due process of the law" and from denying "equal protection of the laws". These became the basis for the later African-American civil rights laws.

The Fourteenth Amendment further stipulated that States denying black men the vote would have their representation reduced accordingly. States enfranchising black men would have their representation increased proportionally. Interestingly, the black man was included but citizens, black and white, were ignored (Norton, et al, 1999,304-305). Interestingly, the Fourteenth Amendment's stipulation that barred prominent Confederates from holding office, although passed into law it was largely ignored. The Republican government realized that whites in the South were in the majority and former slave owners controlled the best land and other sources of economic power. Therefore, the South's Republican Party committed itself to winning white support and that meant re-engaging former Confederate rebels as pillars and leaders of the communities (Norton, et al, 1999,309).

In 1869, the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified. This measure forbade states to deny the right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude". The Fifteenth Amendment became law in 1870 (Norton, et al, 1999,307). In 1877 a series of rigid anti-Black laws were instituted in the South called Jim Crow. The Jim Crow system was the name given to the racial caste system that relegated African Americans to be second class citizens primarily, though not exclusively, in the southern and border states. The myth behind Jim Crow laws was that whites were superior to blacks in every conceivable way.

The following Jim Crow etiquette norms, taken from Dr. David Pilgrim's research at Ferris State University in Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia (pgs. 1-2), show the magnitude and pervasiveness, to name a few: 1. Black males could not offer his hand to shake with a white male because it showed equality 2. Blacks and Whites were not supposed to eat together, if they did, Whites were served first, and some sort of partition was placed between them.

3. Blacks were not to light the cigarette of a White woman. 4. No public affection toward one another (Blacks), especially kissing as this offended Whites.

5. Blacks were introduced to Whites, not Whites to blacks. 6. Blacks driven in a car by Whites were to be in the back seat or truck bed. 7. White motorists had the right of way at all intersections.

With the 1877 election of Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, southern and border states began to restrict the liberties of blacks, this in spite of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. The Supreme Court weakened the Constitutional protections of Blacks in Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) case, which legitimized Jim Crow laws. In 1891, a group of Blacks decided to test the Jim Crow law. Homer A. Plessy, who was seven-eighths White and one-eighth Black (therefore Black), sit in the White-only railroad coach. He was arrested.

Plessy's lawyer argued that Louisiana did not have the right to label one citizen White and another Black for purposes of restricting their rights and privileges. In Plessy, the Supreme Court said that so long as state governments provided legal process and legal freedoms for Blacks, equal to those of Whites, they could maintain separate institutions to facilitate these rights. The Court, by a 7-2 vote, upheld Louisiana law, declaring that racial separation did not necessarily mean an abrogation of equality. In practice, Plessy represented the legitimization of two societies: one White, and advantaged; the other, Black, disadvantaged and despised (Pilgrim, 2000, pgs.

1-3). Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican, became president in 1868. Grant supported congressional Reconstruction and endorsed black suffrage in the South. Grant acted as an administrator of reconstruction while in office but not as an advocate. During Grant's term, the Ku Klux Klan staged violent demonstrations against Blacks that forced Congress to pass two Enforcement Acts and an anti- Klan Act (Norton, et al. 1999.313-314).

Significant Supreme Court Decisions: (Norton, et al, 1999,315-316) 1.) Ex parte Milligan 1866: The Court declared in this case that military trials were illegal when civil courts were open and functioning, and its language indicated that the Court intended to reassert itself as a major force in national affairs. 2.) Slaughter-House Cases 1873: Related to a narrowing of the 14th Amendment in meaning and effectiveness. The Court rejected a claim that the 14th Amendment revolutionized the constitutional system by bringing individual rights under federal protection. The Court ruled that state citizenship and national citizenship were separate. National citizenship entitled one to travel freely from state to state and to use navigable waters of the nation, and only these rights were protected by the 14th Amendment.

3.) Bradwell vs. Illinois: Bradwell, a female attorney, had been denied the right to practice law in Illinois because she was female. The lawyers for plaintiff argued that the 14th Amendment protected the state from abridging her "privileges and immunities" as a citizen. The Supreme Court rejected plaintiff's argument, alluding to women's traditional role in the home effectively confirming the permanent removal from the 14th Amendment that said "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States". 4.) US vs. Cruikshank 1870: Whites convicted under the 1870 Enforcement Act of Louisiana of attacking blacks with deprivation of rights had that conviction reversed when the Supreme Court decided that the 14th Amendment did not give the federal government power to act against these whites; equal rights protection was assumed by the states and rests alone by the states. 5.) US vs. Reese: The Court stated that the 15th Amendment did not guarantee a citizen's right to vote but merely listed certain impermissible grounds for denying suffrage. The result was a path laid for states to deny equal rights for presumed non-racial reasons such as lack of education (Norton, et al, 1999,315-316).

The Civil War and radical Reconstruction during this period failed to address the needs of it's African-American citizens and paid more attention to it's industrial and economic issues, thus the revolution remained partial until the Civil Rights movement much later. Women's Suffrage Beginning in the late 1800's, women began to want changes, particularly in their say in politics. As early as 1860, Esther Mcquigg Morris became the first woman in the world to become a justice of the peace. Morris was named justice of the peace and would later become a catalyst in the "Female Suffrage Act" in South Pass City, Wyoming Territory. Clearly, women were perceived as inferior to men and even ex-slaves, both of whom were allowed to vote during the late 1800's. Several women were instrumental in bringing to the forefront the rights of women equality.

The idea of women's suffrage was first introduced at the Seneca Falls Convention on July 19, 1848. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women's rights convention. At the convention, there were between one hundred and three hundred people, including many men termed sympathetic to the plight of women (Millstein 1977, 98). At the convention, a Declaration of Sentiments was drafted that included a planned approach allowing women eventually to vote and, more importantly, have equal rights to men and recently freed slaves.

The Declaration stated, in substance, "All laws which prevent women from occupying such a station in society as her conscience shall dictate, or place her in a position inferior to that of man are contrary to the great precept of nature, and therefore no force or authority (Gurko 1974,310)". As a result of their position, Stanton and Mott took considerable criticism from both the press and men. Meanwhile, back in the unincorporated Wyoming Territory, a 1869 Bill allowed women the right to vote, and as a result became known as the "Equality State (Millstein, 1977, 65)". Col. William Bright, then president of the Wyoming senate, introduced the Bill as follows: "An Act to Grant to the Women of Wyoming Territory the Right of Suffrage and to Hold Office (Oates, 1999, 47)". Due to this right, Esther Morris was named justice of the peace and N elie Hobart Morris became the first woman to be named Governor of Wyoming. Louisa Swan at age 70 became the first woman in the world to vote; that vote was cast in Wyoming Territory after the original Bill was amended in December, 1869 that allowed women twenty-one years of age to vote.

In 1889, Wyoming Territory applied for Statehood. The United Sates House of Representatives took issue with the fact Wyoming had the recently adopted Suffrage Article; a fierce debate ensued but the Bill passed and in 1889 Wyoming became a State (Oates, 1999, 50). When Wyoming became known as the first State to allow women to vote, Kansas took exception and claimed that they had allowed women to vote in district school elections since 1861 as a result of a campaign by Carina Nichols (Oates, 1999, 51). The Fifteenth Amendment was tested by Susan B. Anthony when she interpreted it to read that along with ex-slaves, women, too could vote.

On Election day, she and twelve other women went to the polls in Rochester, New York and submitted votes. Within two weeks all of the women and the people that allowed the voting were arrested. Anthony was put on trial but the trial was halted by the judge when it appeared the defendant was going to be found not guilty. The judge dismissed the jury, found Anthony guilty and fined her $100.00. Anthony refused to pay the fine and the matter was dropped out of fear that she would appeal the case to a higher court. The others found guilty in the Anthony case also had their matters quietly dropped for the same reasons (Microsoft 2000).

The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on August 18, 1920. It held that, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex (Gurko 1974, 3003). Thus the women's suffrage movement came to fruition. The full equality of both sexes came about due to Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Esther Morris, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to name a few.

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