Final answer:
Isabel Wilkerson views the post-Civil War caste system as being underpinned by social, political, economic, and cultural factors that persistently maintained racial hierarchies and white supremacy through coercive means such as black codes and racial terrorism.
Step-by-step explanation:
Isabel Wilkerson attributes various factors to the caste system that emerged in post-Civil War America. Building upon the works of Allison Davis, Burleigh Gardner, and Mary Gardner, Wilkerson sees the American racial caste system as rooted in social, political, and economic structures, often maintained through coercive means. During Martin Luther King, Jr.'s visit to India, he drew parallels between the treatment of Black Americans and the Dalits of the Indian caste system, suggesting a similar level of deep-rooted social stratification.
After the Civil War, the South struggled to maintain a social order that previously relied on slavery, crafting black codes and perpetuating racial terrorism to preserve white supremacy and control over the freed black population. Economic disparity, political disenfranchisement, and cultural prejudices further entrenched the caste system, with racist ideologies serving to justify the exclusion of blacks from equal opportunities. The caste system thus preserved a status quo where race defined an individual's social mobility and rights.