African Americans faced various obstacles after the Civil War that threatened their political, social, and economic freedoms.
Black struggled to obtain employment, even then they struggled pay, which they still struggle for today. They were limited on where they can go, segregation forced colored peoples to eat in squalor, drink from the dirty water fountains, and attend low class schools.Blacks were prevented from exercising their new political right as well. The Klu Klux Klan an extremist white supremacy group who intimidated voters to steer clear from voting for pro-black politicians, burned down black schools, destroyed black homes and kidnap African Americans from their homes in the midst of the night to lynch them in the middle of a street for the public to see the next morning. Also, racist politicians created literacy tests and poll taxes to disenfranchise black from voting. These tests were not given to most white who registered to vote.Blacks had economic limitation as well.
The biggest obstacle being the fact that former slaves had no idea what to do with themselves when they were freed. They’ve only ever knew how to run a plantation or how to do house hold chores. Some traveled to the North, finding factory work. Others chose to stay on the plantation to work as they have been their whole lives, except this time they were paid. Others decided to rent out land and sharecrop. Black were not paid as much as whites were which held blacks as a source of cheap labor and helped sustain the racial and social hierarchy of the 1800’s.
