Challenges and Progress: Political Affairs

Challenges and Progress: Political Affairs

New Beginning and New Concerns

• The Democrats gained control of the state government and reversed many Reconstruction Laws

• Texas Voters ratified a new state constitution that reduced government powers, included homestead provisions, and encouraged railroad development in the state.

• The rights that African Americans had gained after the war were limited by the establishment of Jim Crow Laws.

Multiple Choice

What were Jim Crow Laws?

• laws discriminating against African Americans

• Laws that protected African American Rights

• Laws that punished anyone that discriminated against African Americans

Open Ended

Name two ways Democrats tried to limit the rights African Americans had gained during reconstruction.

The State Government at Work

• The Texas Rangers were reinstated to deal with the outbreak of lawlessness in the state.

• Vigilante committees often rounded up suspected criminals and delivered harsh and illegal punishments

• A new state capital was built after the old building was destroyed in a fire

Open Ended

How did some communities take laws into their own hands?

Multiple Choice

How long did it take for the new capital to be built?

• 4 years

• 6 years

• 7 years

• 8 years

Women in Texas after the Reconstruction

• Women's associations worked to influence social and political policy

• Some women's groups began working for woman suffrage or women's rights to vote

• Women entered the workforce in new jobs and some found success in fields that were traditionally open only to men.

Multiple Choice

True or False: Women had the right to vote.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

What is suffrage?

• not being able to vote

• the right to vote

• women suffering

• Men not allowed to vote