This article is adapted from writing by Tiffany Mitchell Patterson for the conversation.com. Patterson is assistant professor of secondary social studies at West Virginia University.
During that complex period after the Civil War, African Americans gained political power yet faced the backlash of white supremacy and racial violence.
Reconstruction amendments
The U.S. gained three constitutional amendments that extended civil and political rights to newly freed African Americans following the Civil War.
The 13th, ratified in 1865, banned slavery and involuntary…
