The Fourteenth Amendment In an effort to override the black codes, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The act granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States except Native Americans.

In 1866, Johnson vetoed two important bills by Congress; in response, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment, granting African Americans full citizenship.

The term carpetbagger was used by opponents of Reconstruction—the period from 1865 to 1877 when the Southern states that seceded were reorganized as part of the Union—to describe Northerners who moved to the South after the war, supposedly in an effort to get rich or acquire political power.

The Reconstruction Act of 1867 outlined the terms for readmission to representation of rebel states. The bill divided the former Confederate states, except for Tennessee, into five military districts. The act became law on March 2, 1867, after Congress overrode a presidential veto.

The Abolition of Slavery, the Rise of Jim Crow Occurring during the decade following the Civil War, Reconstruction saw the legal abolition of slavery, the establishment of equal protection under the law, and increased opportunities for Black men to vote and hold political office.

The most significant enduring legacy of Reconstruction was the: creation of true social equality in the South.

How did Reconstruction leave an enduring legacy? The nation’s first African-American colleges were established. The black family became more like the typical white family, with men as the breadwinners and women as the homemakers.