What Three Policies Would Most Have Helped Ensure a Successful Reconstruction?

Civil Rights Act of 1866 was the most important action by Congress towards protecting the rights of Freedmen during Reconstruction. The Congress passed the act as a counterattack against the Black Codes in the southern, which had been recently enacted by all former slave states following the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Included in the Civil Rights Act were the rights to: make contracts, sue, bear witness in court and own private property. The Act granted freedmen all the benefits of federal citizenship, without regard to race, color, or previous condition, and promised that federal courts would uphold these rights. In cases where these rights were violated, federal troops would be used for enforcement. The Civil Rights Act also helped to enforce the Thirteenth Amendment. The Act made African Americans American citizens and forbade discrimination against them.

The Fourteenth Amendment intended to secure rights for former slaves. It was proposed by the congress in 1866, and sent to states to ratify in 1868. The amendment provides a broad definition of national citizenship, overturning the Dred Scott case, which excluded African Americans. The amendment declare that citizenship would be the same in all states, that states that did not give freedmen ht vote would have reduced representation in the congress, and that former Confederate official could not hold public