Blog Assignment #10: What's the Deal with Reconstruction?

Reconstruction was the period of time after the Civil War where former slaves were finally able to fight for their rights as citizens. Unfortunately for them, a great many people from the South still believed that slavery shouldn't have been abolished, meaning that there were a lot of post-War laws that kept the former slaves down. There weren't a lot of aspects of the Reconstruction that went well for anyone but the South. After Abraham Lincoln was forced out of office by a bullet, Andrew Johnson took over and basically reversed what Lincoln had done in his term. Then, Ulysses S. Grant got into office and took a cavalier approach to the slow and steady recapture of the South by Confederates.

The Reconstruction is relevant today because of the number of African-Americans that are allowed to take part in politics. Without the Reconstruction (as corrupted as this country was at the time was), America would probably have stayed an incredibly segregated country. Now people of other races have all of the same rights as the racist whites who didn't want them to even be part of our country. We would definitely not have a black president if it weren't for the Reconstruction.

Having trouble finding a news article. Since this is already late I'll look when I'm done with the essay...