Although impeachment failed, Johnson lost his leadership in the
government, and Congress, within two years after the end of the
war, began Reconstruction all over again. The first large-scale
Congressional hearings in American history were held to
investigate the conditions in the South. The investigation
documented widespread poverty, physical brutality, and
intimidation as well as legal discrimination. The committee made
a detailed examination of the race riots which had occurred in
Memphis and New Orleans in which scores of blacks had been
killed. It concluded that the New Orleans riot was in fact a
police massacre in which dozens of blacks were murdered in cold
blood.
Congress removed home rule from the Southern states and divided
the area into five military districts. Even those Southerners who
had already received federal pardons were now required to swear a
stricter oath in order to regain their right to vote. State
conventions met to draft new constitutions. These conventions
were dominated by a coalition of three groups: new black voters,
whites who had come from the North either to make personal
fortunes or to help educate the ex-slave, and Southern whites who
had never supported the Confederacy.
Pages:
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170