HISTORICAL PROGRESSION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS

The Historical Progression of African Americans

The Historical Progression of African Americans

Introduction

The historical progression of African American community was accompanied by the permanent struggle of African Americans for civil rights and equal opportunities. The Civil War marked at the freedom of African Americans, who were in prison and control of white Americans. The year 1865 marked the end of the Civil War, the assassination of President Lincoln and the beginning of American Reconstruction that lasted until 1877. Reconstruction was set forth to solve two problems simultaneously; how to readmit the South to the Union and how to define the status of free blacks in American society (Boyer et al. 2005). The Nation was met with many challenges during this twelve year period that set the stage for many political precedents as well as political disputes. War came to an end as it had started in America. Therefore, the basic idea of this study is to highlight historical progression of African Americans under the shadow of Reconstruction Era.

Overview

As we know, all decision making for Reconstruction was left in the hands of the executive party, President Andrew Johnson. During the beginning of the Civil War, Johnson was a slave-owner who supported the southern Democrats, but he refused to withdrawal with his state in 1861. After the election of Abraham Lincoln-he remained the only senator from a succeeding state to stay on in Washington (Richter, 1996). Johnson was able to draw the votes of boarder states and wavering Democratic districts in the North (Richter, 1996). This, coupled with his Union loyal government, earned Johnson the vice presidential slot with the Union party in 1864. Within six weeks of his inaugural, in April of 1865, Lincoln was assassinated and Johnson became President. Johnson prepared a plan to be proposed to readmit the succeeded ex-Confederate states into the Union.

At first, Republicans were impressed with Johnson's hardnosed attitude for tougher peace with the South. But no sooner did he take office than he began to moderate in his own way. President Johnson provided his personal political agenda (Boyer et al. 2005). He was a Democrat at heart and he hoped mainly that the fall of slavery would injure southern aristocrats. When Johnson proposed his Presidential Plan for Reconstruction, although stricter than Lincoln's 10 percent plan, it did not win the hearts of the Radical Republicans within Congress.

Military Reconstruction, generally referred to as Presidential Reconstruction, took effect in the summer of 1865 and marked the beginning of the power struggle between two branches of government: the executive and the legislative. Under President Johnson's plan, southerners, disqualified on the basis of wealth or high Confederate position, applied for pardons in droves and Johnson handed them out liberally-some 30,000 of them. Johnson dropped arrangements for the punishment of treason. By the end of 1865, all seven ex-Confederate states had created new civil governments that in effect, restored the status quo from before the war (Boyer et al. ...