Discusses the Black Codes that white Southerners imposed on African Americans after the Civil War and the efforts by Republican politicians to protect their rights.

This article contains numerous facts about black segregation history in the United States from the Civil War through the end of the Civil Rights Movement.

This section from a chapter on "The Era of Reconstruction" describes the efforts made by Congress in 1865 and 1866 to bring to life its vision of Reconstruction and explains how the Fourteenth Amendment transformed the Constitution.