How did African-American lives change after 1865?

In some ways, African
American lives changed after 1865. Slavery was officially outlawed, and during the
Reconstruction period (1865-1876), there was some attempt not only to provide African American
men with the vote but also to have their representation in state and federal governments. In
fact, there were even African American Senators, such as Hiram Revels, who was elected by the
legislature of Mississippi in 1870 (as state legislatures then chose senators). Many African
Americans joined their own churches, which gave them a place not only for spiritual worship but
also for political organizing.

However, in many ways, the lives of African
Americans did not change after 1865. By the end of Reconstruction, new laws, such as vagrancy
laws, tied them to plantations, where they worked as...