Reconstruction Acts

American  

plural noun

1. U.S. History. the acts of Congress during the period from 1865 to 1877 providing for the reorganization of the former Confederate states and setting forth the process by which they were to be restored to representation in Congress, especially the acts passed in 1867 and 1868.

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Example Sentences

Congress passed, over President Andrew Johnson’s veto, the first of four Reconstruction Acts.

From Washington Times

Still, Grant kept working as the head of the Army, deferring to Johnson and largely keeping his own counsel, as the Radical Republicans managed to pass their Reconstruction Acts—and Johnson worked to defy them.

From The New Yorker

The Reconstruction Acts required the Southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment and give African Americans the vote before they’d be readmitted to the Union.

From Washington Post

Spring and Summer 1867 : Congress passes three radical Reconstruction Acts, dividing the Confederacy into military districts, and giving the military power over the judiciary and politics in the former Southern states.

From Slate

The U.S. federal government had intervened in 1867 with new Reconstruction Acts, which led to the 1868 Constitution’s creation.

From Washington Times