Reconstruction Acts Enable Election of Over 2,000 Black Officeholders

The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 dissolve former Confederate state governments and require Black male suffrage as a condition of readmission to the Union. The result is an unprecedented democratic flowering: over 2,000 Black men serve as elected officials across the South between 1867 and 1877, including 16 congressmen, 2 senators, and hundreds of state legislators.