Counter-reconstruction

[Merna]

Counter-Reconstruction was a white racist political movement that occurred in southern states after the Civil War. Counter-Reconstruction systematically sought denial black voting rights, removal of blacks from political office and curtailment of economic opportunities available to blacks. Southern whites had became terrified by wide-spread black engagement in legitimate political process by the 1870s. Counter-Reconstruction was the initial, [reactionary] phase of [the Jim] Crow era. The term plays on Counter-Reformation. Since the Counter-Reformation was [self-serving] Catholic reaction to Protestant gains, the term further indicts the largely-Protestant southern white population for its Christian hypocrisy.