After the Civil War, three amendments were added to the US Constitution to extend rights to the freedmen in the United States. They are the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and they were passed during the Reconstruction Era of US History. Here they are broken down...
13th amendment- abolished slavery in the United States of America
14th amendment- granted citizenship status to the freedmen and, with it, due process of law
15th amendment- universal male suffrage; African American males granted voting rights
Southern States aim to Circumvent these Constitutional Rights
Southern state governments began to take away the rights of the freedmen very quickly.
Jim Crow laws, or segregation laws, began to dictate the societal structures of the South and were inherently designed to make blacks feel inferior to whites.
Literacy tests, poll taxes, and "grandfather clauses" were tactics used to prevent blacks from exercising their right to vote by forcing them to pay to vote, prove they could read, or prove their lineage.