How African Americans were affected by laws during the Reconstruction.

-New southern state legislatures pass restrictive "black codes" to control the work and behaviors of the former slaves and other African Americans.

-During reconstruction in 1867, new business owning black men gained a voice in the government for the first time in American history

-Winning elections to southern states and even to the u.s congress. In less than a decade reactionary forces including the KKK would reverse the changes by radical reconstruction in a violent backlash that restored white supremacy in the south.