1. Reconstruction
6 KEY FACTS
L. M. Freer FIT/SUNY Spring 2013
2. #1
• The re-entry of Southern
states into the Union after
the Civil War was laborious
and lengthy, and happened
on a case-by-case basis.
3. #2
• Lincoln’s successor, Andrew
Johnson, was impeached by
Congress because he
became an obstacle to the
passage of civil rights
legislation.
4. #3
• Southern culture does make
some permanent changes after
the war, but the continued
lessened profitability of agriculture
in the region, as well as a drop-off
in national interest after the
elections of 1868, helps set the
stage for a conservative
resurgence in Southern local
governments in the 1870s.
5. #4
• The 1870s were a time not
only of increasingly
conservative politics but of
increasing racial
intimidation.
6. #5
• In the 1870s and 1880s,
restrictive new state
governments curtail social
services to the needy and
begin to restrict the rights of
African-Americans.
7. #6
• By the time the Supreme
Court rules on Plessy v.
Ferguson in 1896, segregation
(“separate but equal”) has
become an institution—it’s
already woven into American
laws and culture.
