Following the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, the white South sought to reassert control over the region and maintain the social and economic hierarchy that had existed under slavery. This effort was characterized by a range of illegal and extra-legal tactics aimed at suppressing the political and economic power of African Americans and ensuring white supremacy.
Some of the ways that the white South illegally reimposed control over the region included:
1- Violence and intimidation: White supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and other vigilante groups used violence and intimidation to intimidate and terrorize African Americans who sought to exercise their rights, including the right to vote.
2- Voter suppression: States in the South implemented a range of tactics to prevent African Americans from voting, including literacy tests, poll taxes, and other measures designed to make it difficult for African Americans to register to vote or cast ballots.
3- Segregation: Following the 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the constitutionality of segregation, states in the South passed laws mandating racial segregation in public accommodations, schools, and other areas of life. This segregation further reinforced the social and economic hierarchy that had existed under slavery.
4- Sharecropping and debt peonage: Many African Americans in the South were forced into sharecropping arrangements, in which they were given a small plot of land to farm in exchange for a share of the crop, but were often forced to buy supplies on credit from the landowner at inflated prices. This created a cycle of debt that kept many African Americans in a state of economic servitude.
Overall, the white South used a range of tactics to illegally reimpose control over the region following the end of slavery, including violence, voter suppression, segregation, and economic exploitation. These efforts persisted for many years and were only partially dismantled by the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century.