On April 14, 1865, a Confederate sympathizer known as John Wilkes Booth, entered the Ford’s Theater with the intent of killing the sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. Hoping to create chaos within the United States government, Booth and his co-conspirators fatally shot the president and stabbed Rathbone, a young army officer. American rejoicing over the end of the Civil War came to end as news spread of Lincoln’s assassination. With Lincoln’s Reconstruction plan created, Andrew Johnson now took on the role of president of the United States. Abraham Lincoln’s assassination created animosity between Johnson and Congress and an unhappy white population, all whilst paved the way for blacks to vote. Following Lincoln’s assassination, animosity was brewing between Johnson and Congress. Johnson intended to carry out Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction. His views reflected his steadfast Unionism and his firm belief in states’ rights. In the beginning of his presidency, Johnson wished to have Southern states return to the Union. He granted immunity to former …show more content…
After the Civil War, Radical Republican Congress realized federal laws were needed in order to secure the right to vote for black Southern men. Therefore, Congress passed the Military Reconstruction Act which brought the vote to black men in 10 former Confederate states. Congress was able to pass two additional amendments to the Constitution; the Fourteenth Amendment, “made African-Americans citizens and protected citizens from discriminatory state laws”(Library of Congress) and the fifteenth amendment. With the fourteenth amendment ratified, advancements towards blacks voting were made. Evidently, the fifteenth amendment “guaranteed African American men the right to vote.” (Library of Congress). Lincoln’s assassination allowed for this advancement in black rights during Reconstruction after the Civil