How do contemporary debates over voter identification laws, hate crime legislation, and/or the Black Lives Matter movement reflect the challenges that still exist today?

Questions:

  1. In what ways did the Radical Republicans attempt to reshape civil liberties for free slaves in the South? Specifically, what laws were enacted and how successful were they in assisting blacks adjust to their new status? How did President Andrew Johnson undermine these attempts?
  2. While a new government struggled to gain control, the subjugation of "free" black men and women continued in the former Confederate states. Using specific examples, discuss how southerners resisted the new social and political rights bestowed upon free blacks in the Reconstruction period.
  3. What parallels, if any, can be drawn between the escalating racial tension of the Reconstruction period and race relations in the United States today? How do contemporary debates over voter identification laws, hate crime legislation, and/or the Black Lives Matter movement reflect the challenges that still exist today?