Civil War, Reconstruction, and Retrenchment

Abstract

Immediately after the Civil War, the 15th Amendment was passed to guarantee African Americans the right to vote. Movements such as the National Convention of Colored Men added momentum by conducting widespread voting drives. However, in 1875 and 1876 the momentum shifted. The combined effects of the Minor v. Happersett Court ruling and the end of Reconstruction after the Hayes-Tilden Presidential election led to a new era in which states passed grandfather clauses, poll taxes, literacy tests, “white primaries,” and a host of other restrictions, which were supposedly neutral but in fact served to disenfranchise African Americans, particularly in the South.