Final answer:
The long-term effects of Reconstruction included measures like poll taxes and literacy tests which were used to disenfranchise African American voters, undermining the 15th Amendment.
Step-by-step explanation:
One of the long-term effects of Reconstruction was the implementation of poll taxes and literacy tests, which substantially undermined the intent of the 15th Amendment. These strategies were used, particularly in the South, to disenfranchise African American voters. Poll taxes imposed a fee that had to be paid before voting, which was financially burdensome for many African Americans. Additionally, literacy tests were administered to prove a minimum standard of knowledge before voting, often unfairly targeting African Americans with more difficult questions and excluding them using grandfather clauses favoring white voters.
The grandfather clauses allowed those who could vote before the introduction of these tests, or whose ancestors could, to bypass them, thus minimizing the impact on white voters. This selective enforcement contributed to the entrenchment of discriminatory practices even after the legal end of slavery. The period following the end of Reconstruction saw the rise of laws and actions aimed at maintaining white supremacy, including the pervasive spread of Jim Crow laws and practices that sought to segregate and subjugate African Americans for decades to come.