The End of ReconstructionMany Southern whites could not accept the idea that former slaves could not only vote, but also hold office. Their anger created the white supremacist17 Ku Klux Klan.18 The Klan targeted Republican leaders and blacks trying to exercise their new rights. The Klan would beat, lynch,19 or massacre their enemies. Targets of the attacks looked to the federal government for protection, with few results. Entire armed militias20 of citizens formed in the South dedicated to fighting Republican intervention21 and suppressing22 black voters.When Ulysses S. Grant became president in 1868, he failed as well to oversee lasting reform. Grant was a revered and decorated Union general during the Civil War, yet turned out to be less effective as a politician. From 1869 to 1876, the Republican President Grant faced multiple scandals and corruption that allowed Democrats to gain seats and power in Congress.In the 1876 election, Democratic nominee Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote23 over Republican nominee Rutherford B. Hayes. However, Tilden was one vote short of the majority needed to win the Electoral College,24 and 20 electoral votes were disputed. A special electoral commission, or official group, established in 1877 decided in favor of Hayes, but Democrats resisted the decision. Finally, through informal meetings, Democrats and Republicans agreed to the Compromise of 1877. The compromise stated that if Hayes were elected, he would withdraw federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction. Democrats gave the election to Hayes, knowing that the end of Reconstruction governments would allow them to return to power in the South.[10]In 1877, Union Troops withdrew from the South. Without their support, Reconstruction state governments fell, Democrats retook positions in local governments, and southern whites renewed their efforts to strip African-Americans of their rights.25 It would take another century before the Civil Rights Movement made meaningful racial change in the South.

PART B: Which phrase from paragraph 7 best supports the answer to Part A?A. "The Klan targeted Republican leaders and blacks trying to exercise their new rights."B. "The Klan would beat, lynch, or massacre their enemies."C. "Targets of the attacks looked to the federal government for protection."D. "Entire militias formed in the South dedicated to fighting Republican intervention"

PART A: Which statement best describes the relationship between the Ku Klux Klan and Reconstruction? [RI.3]A. The Klan emerged to fight for stronger protection of whites against retaliating former slaves.B. The Klan formed after Reconstruction ended in order to provide structure to disorderly states.C. The Klan formed to fight against Reconstruction policies that gave citizenship and rights to freed blacks.D. The Klan formed to create terror in the Reconstruction Era South as punishment to the ruling Southern Democrats.

According to Joshua Rothman, the 1920s Ku Klux Klan was different from the Reconstruction-era Klan in WHICH ONE of the following ways?Group of answer choicesThe organization included only white members of the Democratic PartyThe organization included only members of the Republican PartyThe organization sought to bring back the Cotton Empire to the SouthThe organization had members all across the United States

According to Joshua Rothman, white, Protestant Americans joined the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s for all of the following reasons EXCEPTGroup of answer choicesThe Klan advocated restoring "true Americanism" and holding back the forces of modernityThe Klan was dedicated to promoting Second Amendment rights and most members were gun ownersAs a fraternal organization, the Klan gave members the sense that they belonged to something specialThe Klan allowed them to express white supremacy and moral conservatism in culturally acceptable ways

Beginning in December of 1860, Southern states began to secede in response to:Group of answer choicesthe election of Abraham Lincolnthe attack on Fort SumterJohn Brown's raid on Harpers Ferrythe Kansas-Nebraska Act