Some say there’s no era in which Black folks fully enjoyed the perks of American citizenship, but what happened during the Reconstruction era immediately following the Civil War came close – which is why Jim Crow followed immediately after.
Perk #1: Emancipation/Citizenship
The Reconstruction era began with an overdue political and human rights move – freeing the enslaved and outlawing chattel slavery. What came next inspired a brief new wave of hope.
Perk #2: Political Representation
According to History.com, “during Reconstruction, some 2,000 African Americans held public office, from the local level all the way up to the U.S. Senate, though they never achieved representation in government proportionate to their numbers.” We finally gained a voice in the political affairs of this nation and have yet to look back – despite suppression by white supremacists.
Perk #3: The Freedmen's Bureau
Established in 1865, the Freedmen’s Bureau gave food and clothing to formerly enslaved persons, ran hospitals, established schools, helped locate family members, provided jobs, offered legal representation, investigated racially motivated conflicts, settled freedmen on abandoned or confiscated lands, and worked with Black soldiers, sailors, and their heirs to secure back pay, bounty payments, and more.
Perk #4: Land Ownership
Many former Confederate lands were sold at auction, often to Black farmers. The Confiscation Acts allowed the Union to seize and redistribute Confederate-owned land – unfortunately, Abraham Lincoln refused to fully enforce them.
The Reconstruction era gave Black people long-overdue economic justice – which is why it was so threatening to white supremacy and led to waves of violent retaliation that still haven’t fully ended.