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Black Codes
These laws relate to race because some black codes made it illegal for African Americans to own their own or rent their own farms. This also had a downfall for the African Americans, because the laws also made it possible for white employers to take advantage of the African American workers. These laws allowed officials to give African Americans fines or even allow them to put the African Americans in prison, but only the ones that didnt have a job. -
Civil Rights Act 1866
This was to protect the South's African Americans. This gave the Freedmen's Bureau new powers. The Bureau was now able to to set up special courts to charge people for violating African American's rights. This also granted citezenship to African American's. -
Reconstruction Acts (1st and 2nd)
The 1st act required that those states form new govenerments. Only Tennessee, which had ratified the amendment, kept its govenerment and rejoined the Uniion. Each state had to submit a new state constitution to Congress for approval. Finally, the act guaranteed African American men the right to vote in state elections. The 2nd act empowered the army to register voters in each district and help organize state constitutional conventions. -
15th Amendment
Most African American voters supported Grant, and he won the presidency. This amendment guarenteed that stae and federal govenerments could not denie the right to vote to any male citizen becoause of "race, color, or previous condition of servituied." Republicans thought that their jos were largly done. They belived that they had succeeded in giving Afican American men the right to vote. They also thought they had the power from the vote and protect the Afican American better against "abuse". -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment said that no state could take a person's life, liberty, or property "Without process of law." It stated that every person was entiled to "equal protection of the law." Some people considered amending the constitution to protect Afican Americans to be an extreme measure, this increased violence toward them.
