high treason that the Republicans accused them of. However, the larger picture was strictly political. The North just wanted to restore the Union to its original status. This became a great opportunity for the Southern states to exercise the most control over their own governments and Constitutions without interference on a federal level. This would be the key factor in how the stage was set to return African Americans to their proper place, at the bottom.Although history tells us that Reconstruction was a joyous era where tremendous change occurred, the reality was that a change occurred and it was not for the better but rather it was from blatant racism to covert racism. In other words, the racism that we experience today held its roots during the Reconstruction Era. While W.E.B. DuBois was correct when he stated that Reconstruction was the only time in history that America practiced a true democracy, this era is and has been somewhat exaggerated as a period when African Americans were considered equals. It is in my opinion that the only reason that the likes of Blanche Bruce, P.B.S. Pinchback, Reverend James Lynch, Oscar J. Dunn, Hiram Revels, and C.C. Antoine were allowed to participate in this true democracy was because the White government had not been sophisticated enough to deter this type of activity from occurring. It didnt take them long to figure out how to put an end to this Ethiopian minstrelsy (and) Ham radicalism in its glory (Franklin, 105). Reconstruction should be regarded as a time of confusion for the White government because they had not planned for the freedom of African Americans in an existential fashion but rather only under the Thirteenth Amendment. Thus, when the Black Codes were established during the period of 1865-1867, although they were frowned upon by the North, legislatures repealed the more objectionable features of (them). (Franklin, 141) While historians have given scant attention to the...
