March 2 - Recontruction begins in the USofA

With the end of the Civil War, the task of reassembling the country – this time in a slavery-free configuration – was squarely on the shoulders of the United States Congress…

On this day in 1867, the first of the Reconstruction Acts was passed.
The others would come over the course of the following year and one month that followed and lived on in spite of President Andrew Johnson’s attempt to veto the acts. We can thank Congress for killing Habeas Corpus and, with it, The Supreme Court’s appellate power over a case such as this one.

I ALMOST stopped short of saying WHY this is relevant to black history, but I think it should be obvious in exactly what the points of the act contained.

§ Creation of five military districts in the seceded states not including Tennessee, which had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and was readmitted to the Union
(so they couldn’t get cute and try that bullshit again)

§ Requiring congressional approval for new state constitutions (which were required for Confederate states to rejoin the Union)
(so they couldn’t get cute and try that bullshit again)

§ Confederate states give voting rights to all men.
(self-explanatory)

§ All former Confederate states must ratify the 14th Amendment
(again, self explanatory, provided you know what the 14^th Amendment is)

So yeah, equal protection under the laws for all men was the order of the day, and the removal of the states’ ability to try getting cute and pulling another Coup.

See, people? Black history is hiding in a fact of every day.