Was the overthrow of African-American political rights during The Reconstruction period inevitable?

Answer 1

I don't think that it had to be. What happened was a changeover in Congress and the United States in general. Most people wanted things to finally go back to normal after the Civil War. Everyday Americans North and South were tired of conflict and sort of gave up on Reconstruction. This completely eradicated the progress that had been made and set African Americans back until the Civil Rights movement of the 1950's.
But if people had stuck with Reconstruction longer and more people , North and South, had gotten in on the idea it would possibly have been successful.

Answer 2

African-American political rights were not overthrown during Reconstruction; disenfranchisement came AFTER Reconstruction.

Given the way the Radical Republicans conducted Reconstruction, I'd say that yes, it was inevitable. The Freedman's Bureau and the Union League drove a wedge of distrust and hatred between the two races to a degree that didn't even exist under slavery. They manipulated freed slaves into propping up a government that literally stole from the citizens of the states. The Whites resented the Blacks for their culpability in all this, and the Blacks were convinced the Whites just wanted slavery to return.

If you read the slave narratives, as well as the accounts of travelers to the ante-bellum South, such as Alexis de Toqueville, you'll see the relationship between the races was far better than it was in the North, even with slavery. How ironic that after Northern conquest and subjugation, racism became worse in the South.

Answer 3

First, as has already been noted, this "overthrow of ...political rights" took place when Reconstruction ENDED.

"Inevitable" is probably a bit too strong. But it would have been VERY difficult to sustain these rights. That would have required incredibly strong political will from a large segment of the population in the North -- a population tired of the aftermath of a very difficult war, and a society that was quite far from making the sort of break with its OWN racist attitudes that would have been needed. Combine that with the determined effort of groups in the South to regain their former power and put the former slaves 'back in their (rightful) place', and it proved to be too much for the U.S. to handle just yet.

In fact, it is amazing that Reconstruction ever got as far as it did. Historically, it was something very new. NO society before had ever attempted to move SO quickly from enslaving a whole population to granting it full political rights.

Answer 4

I believe so. With a society reeling from having just lost a war, revenge and spite were rampant. With northern politicians telling southerners how to live their lives (the reasion the war started in the first place), revolt against these ideas was a sure thing. Military action having ended, the easiest way to continue the pre-war way of life was to disenfranchise and oppress the same people that were held in bondage. It was a legal way to retain the way of life they had had before the war, since fighting had proved fruitless.