W2: Discussion on Required Material for Week 2-Do this required discussion first

This 1899 photograph of students at the Hampton Institute in Virginia was taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston. It is from Artstor.org.

1.) Why did Reconstruction fail? Who was president and why was he a failure in regards to Reconstruction? Should the Southern leadership have been punished? You can refer to the Disenfranchisement section of your lessons in week two. If you use outside sources, they cannot be from anything generic (like history.com type generic websites).

2.) It is surprising to see that so many black office holders existed in the South, just as Reconstruction was starting to fail. In what states did they hold office? What kind of men were they? How were African Americans disenfranchised? What states had the worst voting rights laws? How did these states get away with doing this?

3.) Plessy v. Ferguson is one of the most famous Supreme Court cases in U.S. history. What happened in the case and what precedent did it set? Your chapters have an entire section on the legal system. Find your chapters under “lessons”. Be sure to incorporate that information in your answer (so expand on more than just the Plessy decision).

4.) The Buffalo Soldiers as a group had mixed feelings about participating in the Spanish American War. Who were the Buffalo Soldiers who fought in this war? What were the controversies about?

You can start in your lessons/text and