American Reconstruction Practice Test

The end of Reconstruction came when the Compromise of 1877 resolved the disputed 1876 election by pulling federal troops out of the South and abandoning federal protection of Black rights there. With federal enforcement gone, Southern white political forces regained control and erected Jim Crow systems—laws and practices that disenfranchised Black voters, enforced racial segregation, and curtailed economic and political opportunities. This shift produced a long arc of inequality that delayed true civil rights progress for generations, with gains reemerging only much later through the mid-20th century civil rights movement and ongoing legal and political battles to overcome segregation and disenfranchisement.