Reconstruction Amendments
By 1869, amendments had been passed to abolish slavery and provide citizenship and equal protection under the laws. But the narrow election of Ulysses S. Grant to the presidency in 1868 convinced a majority of Republicans that black voters would be important for the party's future. After rejecting more sweeping versions of a suffrage amendment, Congress proposed a compromise amendment banning restrictions on the basis of race, color, or previous servitude on February 26, 1869. The amendment survived a difficult ratification fight and was adopted on March 30, 1870. After blacks gained the vote, the Ku Klux Klan directed some of their attacks to disrupt their political meetings and intimidate them at the polls, to suppress black participation. In the mid-1870s, there was a rise in new insurgent groups, such as the Red Shirts and White League, who acted on behalf of the Democratic Party to violently suppress black voting. While white Democrats regained power in southern state legislatures, through the 1880s and early 1890s, numerous blacks continued to be elected to local offices in many states, as well as to Congress as late as 1894.