There were several things done by southern whites to deny justice to the black population during the reconstruction. One thing that occurred was the laws passed to restrict black voting and land ownership. Another thing that happened was the Ku Klux Klan. They, the KKK, would terrorize the blacks and murder many over the years.
The Indian Removal Act was signedinto law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange forIndian lands within existing state borders. A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocationpolicy.
B. African American men were granted the right to vote.
- Only days after the end of the American Civil War, in 1865, Frederick Douglass, elected president of the <u>Convention of Black Americans</u>, spoke during a meeting of the African Slavery Society, explaining why the black men required the right to vote and the need to make justice for them. Here is an excerpt of what his speech:
<em>“…If the Negro knows enough to pay taxes to support government, he knows enough to vote; taxation and representation should go together. If he knows enough to shoulder a musket and fight for the flag for the government, he knows enough to vote…What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice.”
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- Thus, in 1869, while this issue was being discussed in the Congress, 150 black men from several states gathered for the <u>Convention of Black Americans</u>, which took place in Washington, D.C. and was the first one in the U.S. history.
- After debating in the Congress, the 15th Amendment, which granted male African American the right to vote, was finally adopted in 1870. Moreover, the Article 1 of such Amendment states that <em>"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
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Andrew Hamilton defended John Peter Zenger and free speech because he knew how fundamental free speech and the ability to speak against the government was to the health of the relatively new United States--which prided itself on liberty.
