Reconstruction

Reconstruction began when the Civil War ended in 1865. The war had saved the Union, and the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ended slavery. Ratified during Reconstruction, the 14th and 15th Amendments guaranteed citizenship and voting rights to black men. Former slaves took advantage of freedom, built new lives, and reunited their families. In Franklin, A.N.C. Williams, Mariah Reddick, and Harvey McLemore became respected community members. McLemore built a home in the Hard Bargain community; Reddick lived downtown and worked as a midwife;and Williams owned a general store on Main Street and founded Cummins Street Church of Christ in 1877., During Reconstruction, blacks first participated in Southern political life at state and national levels. Sampson W. Keeble, born into slavery in Rutherford County, in November 1872 became the first black Tennessean elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives. In the U.S. Senate, the first blacks to serve were Mississippians. Hiram R. Revels, a minister, filled a vacant seat (1870-1871) and Blanche K. Bruce, a successful plantation owner, served a full term (1875-1881). Other achievements included the South's first state-funded public school system, the founding of black colleges and Universities, such as Fisk University in Nashville, and the passage of a comprehensive Civil Rights Act in 1875 to protect the rights of all citizens., The 1877 election of President Rutherford B. Hayes ended Reconstruction. The Democratic Party that had dominated the South before the war reasserted itself. In 1883, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional, paving the way for the Jim Crow era.