So In 1865, following the Civil War, southern state legislatures began enacting Black Codes to restrict freedmen's rights and maintain the plantation system. The Republican-controlled Congress responded to these measures by passing the three great postwar constitutional amendments (Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth to be exact) that abolished slavery, guaranteed the newly freed blacks equal protection of the laws, and gave all male American citizens the right to vote regardless of their "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
also, as Reconstruction came to an end in 1877, the concept of equal rights collapsed in the wake of legislative and judicial actions. The Civil Rights Cases of 1883 greatly limited the rights of blacks and strengthened Jim Crow laws in the South.
Asian, Irish and other immigrant Americans were also restricted from public life, isolated in segregated schools, and discriminated against in regard to employment and housing. They also suffered under bans on racial intermarriage and limitations on real property ownership.
:)
