The Impeachment of Johnson:

In early 1867, The Reconstruction Acts (laws abolishing Southern state governments formed under Johnson and giving blacks the right to vote) were passed by the Congress, despite the many vetoes from Johnson. Later in 1867, just after the passing of The Reconstruction Acts, Congress challenged Johnson's leadership. Without the approval of the senate, congress created The Tenure of Office Act which banned the President from expelling Cabinet members and other officials, as he was planning to do. Johnson believed that the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional, and in February 1868, he illegally expelled Edwin M. Stanton, the Secretary of War, who was a strong supporter of the Republicans. The Republicans then pushed for the dismissal of President Johnson from office. On February 24th, 1868, the impeachment votes began, but the result required for the impeachment to go ahead fell one vote short, so Johnson remained President.

The Reconstruction Governments:

New state governments were set up because of the Reconstruction Acts. Many whites who opposed these Acts refused to vote in the elections. This silly move gave the Republicans, whose size was very small before the war, the extra votes that they needed to win control of every state government. By the year of 1870, all of the former Confederate states had rejoined the Union. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and North and South Carolina, met the requirements given to them according to the Reconstruction Acts in 1868. Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia and Texas took longer to sign the 14th Amendment, but finally did in 1870.

New State Programs And Policies:

The governments under Reconstruction policies were able to build the Southern states first effective school systems. The states rebuilt the shabby schools put up before the war and constructed many more. Black children, for the first time, were allowed to join these schools. Many white children's parents would not send their offspring back to these schools, so the government made some schools for whites and others for blacks. The major economic problems that had arisen immediately after the war for the South slowly started to mend. The agricultural industry, the South's largest industry, began to recover and some Southern families scraped up enough money to start businesses of their own. The federal government helped the South by offering to reconstruct the railroads and set up many industries there. The Southern state governments then not only banned racial discrimination but also accepted that blacks had the right to vote.

White Resistance:

Almost all Southerners refused to abide by the new Reconstruction laws and hated their state governments. They hated their governments because many were corrupt, accepted bribes, and raised taxes. Some families had their land taken off of them because they couldn't afford to pay. Many political leaders sold public land such as parks, etc for favours or pocketed the money for themselves, rather than pouring it into the reconstruction of the towns. However, the biggest reason that whites hated their political leaders was because they were letting blacks vote and even enter into politics. Many whites did not vote in protest against the blacks, but many resorted to violence. The U.S. army was brought into troublesome towns such as Memphis where many blacks were injured or killed. Even the army, however, could do little to stop the , and similar groups from terrorizing blacks and preventing them from voting.