Laws passed during Reconstruction, especially the 14th and 15th Amendments, significantly expanded the scope of American citizenship and extended political rights to millions of black Americans. In 1868, South Carolina had the first state legislature with a black majority. This image includes 63 of the legislature’s members, and it was distributed throughout South Carolina by opponents of Radical Reconstruction.1 This is Handout 8.2 (p. 134) from The Reconstruction Era and the Fragility of Democracy.

This is a photo montage created in 1876 depicting the first South Carolina legislature after the 1867 Reconstruction acts.