Was the United states more or less democratic or did it stay the same between 1865 and 1924?
	Starting in 1865 with the abolishment of slavery, the Reconstruction Era provided African Americans with 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments giving them freedom from slavery, the recognition as full bodied citizens, the right to due process under the law, and the right to vote (Greenwald). These new amendments appeared to include African Americans as members of the American society, but after the failure of Reconstruction, the disfranchisement of African Americans at the polling booths, and the rise of white supremacy again it became more apparent that the United States was not as devoted to equality of its citizens and that the importance of democracy was weaker than it appeared in the Constitution. Not only were the rights of African Americans not wholly democratic, but the rights of women and the working immigrant class of the United States were not included in the democratic notion of the constitution. Women became more aware of what should have been their constitutional rights in the 1880s and eventually received the right to vote with the 19th Amendment in 1920 (Greenwald). Immigrants were initially welcomed into the United States heavily in the 1840's during the Industrial Era(Greenwald) but in the 1890's the theory of Eugenics arose and in 1924 the Immigration Restriction Act was passed, drastically decreasing the immigration of Southern and Eastern Europeans and Asians (Greenwald). The levels of democracy in the United States were inconsistent in between 1865 and 1924 because while African Americans, women and immigrant laborers fought for their equal rights, some were welcomed more openly into American society than others.
	In the case of African Americans post Reconstruction, democracy and equality for them only appeared in the Constitution and was never enforced as expected.  Even the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery did not completely eliminate the concept of it. Ex-slaves ended up in the system of sharecropping which meant they still worked on white man's land that was divided into allotments the ex-slaves could call their own for extremely low profits (Greenwald) and could never move up the social and economic ladder because of lack of profit and debt peonage. Abolishing slavery was a democratic act but Reconstruction failed to ensure that ex-slaves would be removed from the slave system. Only 25% of African American sharecropping families ended up owning their land in the 20th century, while 50% of white sharecropping families did (Greenwald). The white supremacist movement became a dominating factor for ignoring the rights of African Americans.
	The 14th and 15th Amendments helped to increase the American citizenry from the 4 million African American men that were now considered citizens (Greenwald). African American men were given the right to vote and voted Republican (Greenwald). African Americans held office at local and state levels and became police officers, judges and city councilors (Greenwald).  After the presidential election of 1876, and the removal of federal troops in the south, the Compromise of 1877, ended up having little worth and resulting in the One-Party Democrats system in the south (Greenwald).  The Democrats quickly disfranchised the African American men of the south by gerrymandering (reconfiguring the voting districts), developing poll taxes, literacy tests and residency requirements to eliminate African American Republican influence at the polls in the 1890s (Greenwald). The Democrats also threatened and forced African American and white Republican office holders out of office. The one party system immediately violated the 14th and 15th Amendment rights of African Americans and disobeyed the philosophy of democracy in that all adult citizens have the right to vote in elections and run for political office (def. of democracy, Greenwald). 
	White supremacists led to vigilante violence and the rising of the Ku Klux Klan in the south. There was organized lynching of African Americans if they tried to vote or hold political office. African Americans were hunted down for being accused of harassing white women. Ku Klux Klan members were whites from all social classes. Some were judges, some where sharecroppers but they all came together against the African American race (Rourke). The Supreme Court ruling of the allowance of "separate but equal facilities" in the Plessey v. Ferguson case of 1896 segregated the south from birth until death, often times leaving African Americans with much poorer facilities that whites (Greenwald).  According to democracy, the citizens should have control over government decisions vested in elected representatives chosen in frequent elections (Social Scientists, Greenwald). Disfranchisement took voting out of African American's hands, completely disabling African Americans of having control of these Federal decisions. 
	African Americans did not experience social equity particularly in the workforce.  Being considered as lazy and unintelligent (Greenwald), African Americans could not find work and often times when they did they were forced to give up their job if a white man needed it. African Americans were discriminated against in the urban workforce. No matter how skilled they were, they could not find jobs beyond a menial servant 
(LeGates, pg 122). W.E.B. DuBois studied the trials of the African American population in Philadelphia, PA in 1889 and found that the African Americans were not destructive, or involved in gangs, but were hardworking people that were desperate to get out of their situations and to find jobs and get an education to better themselves (LeGates, pg 123).  White politicians did have the majority rule and their political decisions ruled the democracy of the United States yet they failed to recognize the rights of the minority of the African American urban class (def. of democracy, Greenwald).  
	Women were also a minority class in the United States during the time period of 1865 until 1924. The specifications of the word male in the Constitution discriminated women at the polls (Greenwald), in the workforce and in the overall realm of life. Women were looked upon as the child bearers and house keepers. In the mid 1800's women started to become active about their rights and were disappointed when they fought for the right to vote with the 1870 15th Amendment but were still bypassed (Rourke).  The lack of women's rights in the 19th century was undemocratic. Without the right to vote, they were inadequate as substantial citizens under the definition of democracy. 
	Lack of Constitutional rights did not stop women from fighting for them. Organizations like the Woman's Christian Temperance Movement (WCTU) began organized movements of women determined to change particular corrupt aspects of the United States. The WCTU fought for the abolishment of alcohol and claimed that it was a sin and then eventually progressed in the 1880s stated that alcoholism was a disease rather than a sin (Rourke, 724).  The WCTU fought for women needing the right to vote in order to protect the household (Rourke, 724). By 1900, because of organizations like the WCTU, women gained recognition of their political voices (Rourke, 724). 
	Women's suffrage was still not as powerful of an organization as the WCTU but had received the vote for women in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho by the end of the 1800s (Rourke, 725).  The woman's suffrage movement did call for women to make a difference in order to gain the right to vote and in the 1890s women became part of the Progressive Era. Women felt that the social gospel, which campaigned against vice and crime would lead to social purity (Rourke, 749). The Progressives fought to clean up the city and improve the life of the poor, city dwellers. Most Progressive women were well-educated and wanted to use their education to educate other women, in order to gain more rights (Greenwald). Settlement houses, like the Hull House, were organized by women to educate immigrants and provide social working services to the poor (Greenwald). Settlement houses were also used as a training center for a generation of college-educated female reformers (Greenwald).  
	The Progressive Era produced women as probation officers, social workers, visiting nurses, factory inspectors and state labor commissioners (Greenwald). These well-educated women became high-ranking federal employees and are partially responsible for the Children Bureau in the federal government (Greenwald). Women's political activism produced democratic rights for them. They would have never had an impact on their rights or the rights of others if they did not make use of the freedom of speech that was granted to them in the Constitution. Because women decided to take a stand and better their situation, they were eventually granted the right to vote in 1920 with the 19th Amendment (Greenwald). This established women as part of the democracy, and gave them equal rights in politics. 
	Women also used their social expertise to help impoverished and struggling immigrants. Immigrants rushed into the United States in large amounts in the 1800's (Greenwald). These immigrants from all over Europe and Eastern Asia, flooded American ports looking for employment, freedom from religious prosecution and land (Greenwald).  In the time of the industrial boom of steel corporations, immigrant men could find employment working in factories and mines (Carson). Women kept the houses and took in borders to provide extra money for the household (Carson). Immigrants were given the right to vote and the rights of the Constitution until the Eugenicist movement of the early 1900s that brought about troubles especially for southern and eastern immigrants (Greenwald). 
	Eugenicists believed that there was scientific evidence that the white race was a superior race and that Anglo-Saxons were more intelligent and competent than the white races of the Slavic countries and Italy (Greenwald). By the early 1900s it was believed that Southern and eastern Europeans and eastern Asians were people that did not want to assimilate with American culture and made money here and then quickly sent back to their home countries (Greenwald). Immigrants were accused of taking white men's work. All of these factors led to the denying of immigrants to vote and get increases in wages because they were viewed as incompetent (Greenwald, Bell). By 1924, it was decided that the Immigration Restriction Act should be passed denying southern and eastern Europeans and eastern Asians the right to enter the United States (http://historymatters.gmu). 
	Immigrant restriction was very undemocratic of the United States. It took away the indications that were written at the base of the Statue of Liberty saying "Give me your tired, your poor.." (Rourke, 677).  Immigrants were no longer accepted into the nation that promised freedom and liberties. They were not allowed to express their right to freedom of speech or the right of citizenship. Immigrants' democratic rights were abused.
	The United States faced triumphs and failures in democracy during the time period of 1865 through 1924. While African Americans were teased with the awards of civil equities and never completely gained them, women had an uprising and received the right to vote which was what they had been fighting for. Immigrants got their rights of citizenship in the United States denied making the United States appear less democratic than it claimed to be in the Constitution. In conclusion I believe that in this time period the United States rode a roller coaster of democracy becoming more and less democratic at varying times. 










	
