Race Relations from Reconstruction through WWI
The reconstruction process beginning in 1865 brought on new race relations in America that would change the lives of every American. After the Civil War, newly freed slaves faced many challenges. Whites, especially in the South regarded blacks as inferior more than ever. While blacks were trying to move on and support their families outside the plantation that they were used to, Whites were engineering new ways to keep blacks as second class citizens. Sharecropping, which emerged as the dominant form of working the land, allowed freedom from white supervision and control but curtailed blacks from becoming wealthy and from owning land. Black Codes were supposed to give "persons of color" their freedom in a constitutional form. The real purpose, however, was to restrict the freedom of the black labor force and keep freed people as close to slave status as possible. These codes stated that although persons of color do have some rights such as the right to own land, make contracts, and to sue and be sued, they are not entitled to social or political equality with white persons. The codes were outrageous, actually stating that if a "person of color" makes a contract for service or labor, they shall be known as servants, and tho
" Congress also voted to enlarge the scope of the Freedman's Bureau empowering it to build schools, pay teachers, and establish courts to prosecute those charged with depriving African American's of their civil rights. As the "West" was being settled, violent outbreaks between white emigrants and Indian peoples became increasingly commonplace. Many whites disagreed with those who believed as Douglass did. Congress not only overrode Johnson's vetoes, they also passed the 14th amendment so that the Civil Rights Act could not be declared unconstitutional. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which suspended Chinese immigration, limited the civil rights of resident Chinese, and forbade their naturalization. The Chinese immigrants, most of who had come to the United States to work in railroad construction, were discriminated against even more than the African Americans. Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his troops fell before on of the largest Indian contingents ever assembled and became famous for "Custer's Last Stand. on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. In 1917, the United States entered into World War I. Because of this lack of skills they entered the bottom ranks of factories, mines, mills, and sweatshops. To protect their land, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors moved into war camps during the summer of 1867. The combination of these Supreme Court decisions marked the end of federal attempts to protect African American rights until well into the next century.
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