The Impact and Legacy of the Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation committed the nation to ending slavery. Yet what would freedom mean? Economic independence? Freedom from fear? The right to vote? The U.S. Congress responded with a series of Constitutional amendments ending slavery, granting citizenship, and giving black men voting rights. These rights changed the political landscape. By 1872, 1,510 African Americans held office in the southern states. Eight black men served together in the U.S. Congress in 1875—a number that would not be matched until 1969.
Expansion of Rights
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865. To protect the rights of newly freed people, Congress enacted two additional Constitutional amendments. The 14th Amendment (1868) guaranteed African Americans citizenship rights and promised that the federal government would enforce “equal protection of the laws.” The 15th Amendment (1870) stated that no one could be denied the right to vote based on “race, color or previous condition of servitude.” These amendments shifted responsibility for protecting rights to the federal government if states failed to do so.
As soon as the war ended, many whites organized to oppose black freedom. Using terrorism and the courts, they forced African Americans away from voting booths and other public places. By the 1890s, southern states passed laws legally segregating black and white Americans. States excluded black voters by enacting literacy tests, poll taxes, elaborate registration systems, and whites-only Democratic Party primaries. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld these measures. The laws proved very effective. In Mississippi, fewer than 9,000 of the 147,000 voting-age African Americans were registered after 1890. In Louisiana, where more than 130,000 black voters had been registered in 1896, the number had plummeted to 1,342 by 1904.