Amendments
This amendment grants U.S. citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the U.S. and prohibits the deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
14th Amendment
The first United States federal law to define U.S. citizenship and guarantee equal protection under the law.
Civil Rights Act of 1866
A white supremacist group that used violence, threats, and intimidation to prevent African Americans from gaining equal rights during the Reconstruction. Founded in 1865.
Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
An exam used to check a person's ability to read and write. Used from 1890 to 1960 to block African Americans from voting.
Literacy Test
This amendment permanently abolished slavery and involuntary servitude across the entire U.S..
13th Amendment
Restrictive laws passed by Southern states in 1865 and 1866, immediately after the Civil War.
Black Codes
Farmers who rented land from landowners and paid them with a portion of the crops they grew, rather than paying them money.
Sharecroppers
A fixed fee that individuals had to pay to vote. This was used in southern states so African Americans and low-income white citizens couldn’t vote. They were banned in federal elections in 1964 and all elections in 1966.
Poll Tax
This amendment protected the right of African American men to vote after the Civil War and made it illegal for the federal government or any state to deny voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
15th Amendment
A U.S. law passed by Congress over President Andrew Johnson's veto.
Military Reconstruction Act
Black Americans who were elected or appointed to government positions during Reconstruction after the Civil War.
African American office holders
An agreement that settled the disputed presidential election of 1876. It made Rutherford B. Hayes president in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South and it ended Reconstruction.
Compromise of 1877
A series of laws that were used to separate blacks from whites.
Jim Crow Laws
A U.S government agency that was established after the Civil War to help formerly enslaved people and other people that were affected by it. It provided food, medical care, education, and assistance.
Freedmen’s Bureau