Following the unimaginable horrors brought by way of the transatlantic slave trade, the Reconstruction Era was presented as a time of progress and positive change. This unique time period was meant to be the start of a new era of rectification, reparations, and political and socio-economic justice for African Americans (via Britannica). In the spirit of freedom from slavery and war, the U.S. introduced promising constitutional amendments and new legislation meant to level the playing field by giving individuals of African American descent the right to vote, among other things.

Sadly, the New Georgia Encyclopedia reports that many of the initial efforts of Reconstruction were ruined at the hands of the Klu Klux Klan and other organized hate groups. Acts of racially-motivated terrorism effectively resulted in hundreds of documented murders. But it was the death of an 1890 piece of legislation that arguably did the most damage (via History, Art, & Archives). Had the Federal Elections Act survived in the Senate, African American voting rights, and the political power that coincided with them, might have prevented the horribly oppressive Jim Crow laws that followed.

The US Senate killed the Federal Elections Act, causing irreparable damage

Shutterstock