Importance of the Reconciliation/Gilded Era

Policies from the American Reconstruction and Gilded Age continue to have reverberations today on issues ranging from gender & sexuality to the Black Live Matter movement.

Reconstruction ended early and fell short of expectations; the South reverted to slavery in form as winning electoral votes were traded for the removal of the military from the South in the 1876 presidential election, and along with it the removal of civil rights enforcement. As federal enforcement left the south, white southerners sought to “redeem” (Hence, Redeemer Democrats) the south from “Negro Rule” — Jim Crow segregation, Black Codes limiting economic and social livelihood, disenfranchisement, sharecropping

The 14th Amendment (Birthright citizenship, equal law pertaining to all races) and 15th Amendment (racial equality in voting) still play in discussions today.

Eric Foner: “The issues central to Reconstruction — citizenship, voting rights, terrorist violence… relationship between economic and political democracy — continue to roil our society and politics today.”

Along with racial violence, racial relations were hardened, as systematic dehumanization and racist concepts praising white supremacy, the Lost Cause, and black inferiority were spread through mass-produced media/ prints, films such as The Birth of a Nation (1915) of the Gilded Age — with modern cultural repercussions.

Here are some foundations that were combating racism: 

• The New Negroes: Leading black activists, including Booker T. Washington, W.E.B Du Bois, NAACP 
• Local organizations (churches, schools, clubs) of the late 1800’s to early 1900’s published newspapers, journals, art, literature in drawing the picture of racism and defending African American culture

Reconstruction:  Term describing the near 10 year period following the civil war when a Republican-controlled federal government instituted an array of civil rights legislations and methods of reuniting the south

Presidential Reconstruction: Andrew Johnson (Democrat), after Lincoln’s death, sought swift reconstruction, instituting lenient policies of pardon, restorations for rebel states and officials. This resulted in the creation of Black Codes in the south and ex-confederate officials, including Confederate vice president, Alexander Stephens, back to position.

Radical Reconstruction:  Republican Congress led by radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens, in reaction to Johnson, instituted harsher Reconstruction Acts, including military jurisdiction/ courts, disenfranchisement of ex-confederates, Civil Rights bill, etc.

Carpetbaggers: Derogatory southern term for northern Republicans that came south.

Scalawags: Southern whites that voted Republican, mostly including small farmers

Ku Klux Klan:  A white supremacist vigilante group that instituted violence and lynchings against African Americans. Suppressed only by the arrival of federal troops in 1871.

Major legislations and institutions were founded in Reconstruction:  14th and 15th Amendment, first Civil Rights Bill (1866), public school systems in the south.

Freedmen’s Bureau:  Federal program instituted in the South which assisted poor blacks and whites, created schools for freedmen, mediating ex-slave and master disputes, and set up civilian courts enforced by union troops.  One of the first forms of direct federal aid to civilians.

Gilded Age:  Term by Mark Twain, describing the racial inequality, wealth gap, industrial conditions, and political corruptions beneath the surface of technological advancements (including photography, films, cars, etc.) and wealth in the US during the late 1800s and early 1900s

The underestimation of racism and quick public departure from Reconstruction as financial panics and political corruption overtook the political stage left deep consequences that remains unresolved even until today

Covid-19’s disproportionate impact on minorities exposes the inequalities existing in terms of race and wealth

Reconstruction and the Gilded Age refer to the half-century following the American Civil War in the US. Although important foundations, including the 13, 14, and 15 Amendments and Civil Rights bills, were set during this time, the nation’s premature departure from instituting racial equality resulted in another century of discrimination.

Cultural underpinnings for racism, resulting from Redeemer South propaganda and imagery against African Americans, were founded upon the southern reaction to Reconstruction.

Issues ranging from racial violence, civil rights, and debates on the 14th Amendment, continue today in the form of Floyd’s death, the BLM movement, the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment), mass incarceration, and system racism as a significant consequence of systemic racism from Reconstruction Era.

Works Cited

Gates, Henry Louis. “How Reconstruction Still Shapes Racism in America.” Time, Time, 2 Apr.  

2019, time.com/5562869/reconstruction-history/. 

Manevitz, Alexander. “Perspective | The Failures of Reconstruction Have Never Been More 

Evident – or Relevant – than Today.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 11 June 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/11/failures-reconstruction-have-never-been-more-evident-or-relevant-than-today/.

Norton, Mary Beth. A People and a Nation: a History of the United States. Cengage Learning, 

2011.