Final answer:
The controversy relates to determined Southern resistance to Northern efforts to change its culture during the Reconstruction era, marked by violent backlash and the rise of groups like the Ku Klux Klan to oppose Reconstruction policies and maintain white supremacy.
Step-by-step explanation:
The controversy highlighted in the political cartoon is most directly a result of determined Southern resistance to Northern efforts to change its culture. This resistance emerged during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, as Radical Republicans pursued policies aimed at restructuring Southern society and granting rights to newly freed African Americans. There was a violent backlash from many Southern whites, who saw these efforts as a threat to their traditional way of life and social order. Organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan used terror to oppose Reconstruction policies and to maintain white supremacy.
Radical Republicans attempted to secure rights for black citizens and transform the South economically and socially, facing opposition not only from Democrats but also from systemic and cultural challenges. The presence of northerners in the South, known as carpetbaggers, and Southerners who supported Reconstruction, referred to as scalawags, further incensed those who opposed change. This period was also marked by accusations of corruption and misuse of state funds, which were used as political ammunition against the Republicans. Despite the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment, increasing violence and resistance from Southern Democrats eventually eroded the gains made during Reconstruction.
By 1876, only three Southern states had Republican governments left, and with the Compromise of 1877 and the removal of federal troops, the resistance successfully ended Reconstruction efforts, setting back progress on racial equality for nearly a century.