Black Codes Quotes
Professor Egerton documents how successful Reconstruction was in radically changing the positions of Blacks in the South. He points out that it was so effective that a hate-filled, racist group of Southern White terrorists, with murder, arson, torture and intimidation took over many of the governments of the South while President Andrew Johnson, who although he believed in the Union, was himself an inveterate racist and opponent of emancipation, would not use the force of the Federal Government to bring the terrorists to justice. (The KKK leaders were known in every state and county). They successfully overthrew Reconstruction and set the process back by 100 years.
There was a fear of free Blacks gambling which did not extend to whites as there was much gambling at the time.
This was passed after the Civil War had ended---during Reconstruction. It in effect gave the local authorities control of all Blacks. Those who did not have a home, and few owned land to have one, had to have a job certified to be a white or the Negro could be arrested as a vagrant. But to get the job, they had to agree to whatever terms were offered, usually by their old slave masters.
