Reconstruction produced real Black political power and measurable gains

Evidence

Perhaps most disconcerting for white Southerners was the prospect of Black people holding political power over white people, and thus gaining the opportunity to rewrite the rules, overturn exploitative economic arrangements, and redesign the social and political order. With the passage of the Reconstruction Act in 1867, followed by the Fifteenth Amendment, guaranteeing that the right to vote “shall not be denied or abridged” on the basis of race, an era of rising Black power began. For nearly a decade, Black people voted in huge numbers across the South, electing a total of sixteen Black men to serve in the U.S. Congress, including two in the Senate. Literacy rates climbed, and educated Black people began to populate state legislatures, open schools, and initiate successful businesses. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 385