3

-3-
The Civil War ended the legality of slavery, but the restrictive system continued through custom and a series of laws designed to keep Black American slaves in all but name.

In the years after the Civil War, the United States Congress allowed the white South to keep Blacks subservient, to deprive Blacks of civil rights, and to deny Blacks the right to vote through terror and repressive law. The United States Supreme Court permitted the establishment of racial rule in the South, and most Americans - - even those who believed in racial equality -- disapproved of the use of aggressive tactics to end southern segregation.

But just as slaves had revolted against being someone else's property, the newly freed Blacks revolted peacefully against being kept voteless, landless, and excluded from the American Dream.

When their efforts were thwarted by violence, Congress, and the courts, they kept alive the hope that conditions would improve. Gradually a clear distinction was drawn between racial