Answer:
Step-by-step explanation:
One of the most important aspects of the Reconstruction Era was the active participation of Black Americans (including thousands of formerly enslaved people) in the political, economic and social life of the South. The era was to a great extent defined by their quest for autonomy and equal rights under the law, both as individuals and for the Black community as a whole. During Reconstruction, some 2,000 Blacks held public office, from the local level all the way up to the U.S. Senate, though they never achieved representation in government proportionate to their numbers.Before the Civil War began, Black Americans had only been able to vote in a few northern states, and there were virtually no Black officeholders. The months after the Union victory in April 1865 saw extensive mobilization within the Black community, with meetings, parades and petitions calling for legal and political rights, including the all-important right to vote.
During the first two years of Reconstruction, Black people organized Equal Rights Leagues throughout the South and held state and local conventions to protest discriminatory treatment and demand suffrage, as well as equality before the law.
Radical Reconstruction
During the decade known as Radical Reconstruction (1867-77), Congress granted Black American men the status and rights of citizenship, including the right to vote, as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment and 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Beginning in 1867, branches of the Union League, which encouraged the political activism of Black Americans, spread throughout the South.