Political Context of Black Suffrage in the Reconstruction Era
One of the main allegations of “racism” made against the South is that white Southerners were historically against black suffrage. As the historian Eric Foner sees it, during the Reconstruction Era the federal government—guided by principles of racial justice and equality—forced a reluctant South to give black citizens the vote. Yet, during this era, roughly 1865 to 1877, black people in the North also did not have the right to vote. For example, in Connecticut,