Federal Occupation Ends (continued)
Federal reconstruction efforts ended in 1877. During the period between the end of the Civil War and 1877, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution were passed. Southern infrastructures were rebuilt and the South began new economic growth. Many black American families had been helped by the Freedmen’s Bureau and attained jobs, housing, and an education.
The period of reconstruction did not repair personal prejudice, however. Most black Americans, even those who worked, remained in a cycle of poverty due to the unfair conditions that kept them from getting out of debt and the Jim Crow laws that were designed to keep them oppressed. Most blacks did not own property and they had their political power suppressed. Many white Southerners did not trust the federal government. The bitter feelings that were fueled during the Civil War remained.