During the 12 year period after the Civil War (1865-1877) four main groups of people, Southern Whites, Recently Freed Blacks, Northern Democrats, and Northern Republicans, were all competing to rebuild the war ravaged South to their advantage or ideals, but it was the Southern Whites whose needs were most closely met. Because the freedmen were never given social equality, education, means of economic success, or full participation in government operations the plantation owners of the south were able to bring about conditions after the civil war which were not far from those of the prewar, with the whites controlling the laws and the money and the blacks performing all of the labor needed to fuel an agrarian economy.

             After the Civil War many Negroes though they would soon be entitled to nearly full, if not complete, social equality because of congressional action such as the formation of the freedman's bureau and the passing of the civil rights act. However, they soon learned that the Southern whites were not about to let this happen, and that blacks would be kept in the inferior position they had known for the hundreds of years that preceded the war. Soon after the war most Southern states wrote into the books news laws pertaining to Negroes called the "Black Codes." These laws, which were often identical to prewar laws save the word "slave" was replaced with the word "freedman", limited almost every conceivable right of the black man. They were denied the ability to congregate in groups, stay at certain motels or inns, and eat at many restaurants. They were required to carry special passes and given a curfew. Because the white South was so opposed to black equality, any law passed to grant Negroes rights were either or ignored, or were bypassed using certain loopholes. Congress could do almost nothing to stop these maltreatments from happening. In 1875 they did pass the Civil Rights Act, but poor enforcement and a Supreme Court ruling 8 years later led the bill practically useless to the blacks.