The conditions in the South during Reconstruction
Even though Southern states rejoined the Union and agreed to the 13th amendment (which outlawed the institution of slavery), the South looked very similar to what it did before the Civil War started. Even though African Americans were technically free, many of them still worked on plantations. There work on plantations was under the system known as sharecropping. Sharecropping is a system in which a person leases land from a farm owners. In return, the worker promises to give land owners a share of their crop. This system resulted in strict labor contracts. Ultimately, this system would tie African Americans to plantations as plantation owners used loopholes within the contract to keep their tenants from finding other opportunities.
Along with this, African Americans were still treated horribly in the South. The development of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization, resulted in the beating and killing of thousands of African American citizens. This group was created in order to strike fear in the hearts of African American citizens and to prevent them from using their newly gained rights (like the right for men to vote).
Lastly, the South would continue to treat African Americans as inferior by the implementation of black codes and Jim Crow laws. These laws allowed for the development of segregated public and private facilities.
The 1948 United States Presidential Election is considered apart from being one of the biggest electoral upsets in American history, the start of an era of great economic prosperity and growth of the United States as a superpower in the land of politics.
After winning the election then President elect Harry S. Truman implemented and oversaw various policies in order to contain and stop the influence of communism around the world which culminated in the entry of the United States in the Korean war.
During this time period President Truman also oversaw the approval of NSC 68, a secret statement of foreign policy. Which sought to increase the defense budget and in turn increase the military prowess of the US and weaken the Soviet Union's influence as much as possible.
The results of the 1948 Presidential Elections also influenced the reform of civil rights in the US, more specifically voting rights and fair employment rights, these reforms also had a key role in ending racial segregation in the armed forces.
This excluded a majority of the population: slaves, freed slaves, children, women and metics (foreigners resident in Athens). The women had limited rights and privileges, had restricted movement in public, and were very segregated from the men.
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