Did the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War result in freedom, equality and civil rights for African Americans?

The Reconstruction Era lasted from the end of the Civil War in 1865 to 1877. Its main focus was on bringing the southern states back into full political participation in the Union, guaranteeing rights to former slaves and defining new relationships between African Americans and whites. While very little fighting occurred on Iowa soil and Iowa had never legalized slavery, black migration of former slaves into the region and the national focus on civil rights forced Iowa to reconsider its own racial relations.

Amending the U.S. Constitution during Reconstruction 

When southern states seceded from the Union, they withdrew their representatives from Congress, leaving both the Senate and the House under the control of the North. While most white Americans still held views that whites were superior to African Americans and were not yet ready to integrate society, many were sympathetic to the plight of freed slaves and wanted to promote their welfare. On the political front, Republicans were eager to give African Americans the right to vote because they anticipated that African Americans would strongly support them at the polls.

To achieve these goals, Republicans needed to amend the U.S. Constitution, a process that requires approval of two-thirds of each chamber of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states. Republicans felt an urgency to get these measures approved before southern congressmen returned to Washington, D.C., who could block the process. In 1865, Congress passed and states approved the 13th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery. In 1868, the 14th Amendment was ratified granting "equal protection of the law" and "due process" to all citizens to prevent southern states from passing laws that would discriminate against African Americans.

Constitutional Changes in Iowa

The Iowa legislature, controlled by Republicans, approved both amendments. Even though there was some opposition to measures that looked as if they were moving toward racial equality, Iowa Republicans realized they could not impose on the South restrictions that they were not willing to support at home. Before the Civil War, African Americans were denied the right to vote in northern as well as southern states. Iowa was no exception. The 1857 Constitution restricted suffrage to white males 21 years of age and over. Changing the state constitution required an affirmative vote on a referendum. In 1868, two years before the 15th Amendment prohibited denying the vote to anyone based on "race, color or previous condition of servitude" (slavery), the Iowa legislature submitted to the voters (all white males at the time) an amendment to strike the word "white" from voting requirements. The measure won a majority, and African-American males in Iowa could vote. In 1870, when the 15th Amendment came to the states ensuring African-American suffrage nationwide, Iowa became the 29th state to approve it, providing the final state necessary for passage.

The suffrage amendment was controversial on several fronts. Many white voters, primarily Democrats, opposed measures that brought African Americans more fully into mainstream society. Advocates for women’s suffrage were very disappointed that the measure stopped with African Americans — male only — suffrage, leaving all women out of the voter pool. Some Republican leaders urged the suffragists to wait their turn: "This is the black men’s hour." And wait the women did. Women did not achieve full suffrage for another half century.

Race Relations in Iowa

There were other legal developments on race relations. In 1867, Susan Clark, a African-American youth in Muscatine, was denied admission to the public school on account of her race. Her father, Alexander Clark, challenged the policy in a case that went to the Iowa Supreme Court, which ruled in her favor. The Iowa Constitution granted the responsibility to the Board of Education to "provide for the education of all the youths of the State." The Court ruled that "all" meant all with no authority to deny education to any based on race. In another case, the Supreme Court ruled that there could be no discrimination based on race in public accommodations like railroads and steamboats. In practice, however, the laws were unevenly enforced.

Union soldiers continued to enforce law and order in the South until 1877. During those years and after, Iowa confronted new challenges to the American commitment that "all are created equal" as more African Americans migrated to river and southeastern Iowa cities and to Des Moines. While Iowa can be proud of several major steps toward equality, racial attitudes of most white Iowans of the period continued to oppose full integration.

Supporting Questions

How free were African Americans during Reconstruction?

• "Emancipation," 1865 (Image)
• Certification of the 13th Amendment by Secretary of State William H. Seward, December 18, 1865 (Document)
• "Slavery is Dead(?)," January 12, 1867 (Image)
• Hampton Plantation Account Book, 1868 (Document)
• "Family record. Before the war and since the war," 1880 (Image)
• "Proportion of the Colored to the Aggregate Population: 1890," 1898 (Map)

Were African Americans considered equal members of society and treated as such?

• "Startling Revelations from the Department of South Carolina," 1864 (Document)
• "The Freedman's Bureau" Political Poster, 1866 (Image)
• Joint Resolution proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, June 16, 1866 (Document)
• Interview with Cane Cook, a Former African-American Sharecropper, with Reverend H.W. Pierson, 1870 (Document)
• "The Struggle between the Civilization of Slavery and that of Freedom" by Edward C. Billings, October 20, 1873 (Document)
• "The Union as It Was," 1874 (Political Cartoon)
• "Shall We Call Home Our Troops? We Intend to Beat the Negro in the Battle of Life & Defeat Means One Thing — Extermination,"  1875 (Political Cartoon)
• "Black Laws" of 1861, 1864 and 1878, March 10, 1886 (Document)

How much political power did African Americans have during Reconstruction?

• "Letter of Daniel R. Goodloe, to Hon. Charles Sumner, on the Situation of Affairs in North Carolina," May 7, 1868 (Document)
• George Smith's Statement on the Ku Klux Klan in an Interview with Reverend H.W. Pierson, 1870 (Document)
• Secretary of State Hamilton Fish’s Certification of the 15th Amendment's Ratification, March 30, 1870 (Document)
• "The First Colored Senator and Representatives in the 41st and 42nd Congress of the United States," 1872 (Image)
• "Everything Points to a Democratic Victory This Fall," October 31, 1874 (Political Cartoon)
• "Radical Members of the First Legislature After the War, South Carolina," 1876 (Image)