Reconstruction

…

…abjured to any public education and access to public facilities. There are many misguided schemes that collapsed because of either radical excess or a democratic experiment that did not go far enough. The lack of land and reforms which would give African-Americans power to defend their interests as free citizens Reconstruction left significant legacies, including the 14th and 15th amendments which remained as the symbols of the democratic idealism that swept Congress in the 1860s.