When Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation andGeneral Robert E. Lee surrendered toGeneral U.S. Grant, the social fabric of the United States changed forever. Slavery, an institution that was part of America since the first European colonists arrived, had ended. Reconstruction would create a new relationship among the races. The big question was, "What kind of relationship would be created"?

Source: Freedmen Voting in New Orleans in 1867, Wikimedia

Radical Republicans tried to build a democracy in which everyone could participate and receive equal treatment under the law. They amended the Constitution and used the power of the federal government to enforce their vision for how the country should change. Their efforts were strongly resisted by many former Confederates, who tried hard to maintain the privileges that white men enjoyed.

In this lesson, you will explore the social changes made during Reconstruction and the resistance that prevented the full Radical Republican vision from truly becoming law until the Civil Rights movement of the mid-20th century.