Reconstruction Impacts on Racism and Exploitation

Reconstruction did not entirely eradicate racism and exploitation in America between the African Americans and the natives and thus led to the development of civil rights movements to try and address the situation. The existence of the Jim Crow laws affected the primary objective of reconstruction, and hence it did not manage to eliminate racism and exploitation that faced African-Americans in the southern states. To begin with, the white supremacy groups, Jim Crow laws and a majority of the state constitutions neglected African Americans from certain political freedoms. In this case, it was able to subject African Americans to second-class citizens and hence creating a rift between the whites and blacks. Violence was used by whites in the south to attain dominance and consequently forced Africans into a second class where the political rights were minimal.

In my opinion therefore, it helped to address the issues of racism and exploitation, but the adverse outcome had a long lasting effect than the positive. Conclusion In conclusion, reconstruction’s Jim Crow laws contributed to white dominance over the Africans and hence did not successfully end racism and exploitation but created a rift between whites and blacks concerning class. The form of violence that was used by whites to dominate the Africans for self-interest resulted from the reconstruction era and despite the existence of political and civil rights freedoms, they did not earn Africans the expected benefits. Majority of the freedmen were not given land, and hence it was not possible for them to have an economic base power. Work Cited Foner, Eric.