There were primarily three groups whose emotions, purposes, and objectives were not addressed at all, and they were women, slaves, and immigrants. They all faced a great amount of marginalization by the government, other groups, and white men.
Women were not considered important in any way during the Reconstruction period. They were not allowed to vote or take part in any big events. Their say did not matter at all. This made Susan Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form organizations, and they were called the suffragettes. As the name suggests, their goal was to get women the right to vote. In 1890, Susan and Elizabeth merged their organizations to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. To get support, they first contacted some black organizations and asked them to merge, so that the women and the black people could fight together for their right to vote. But the black organizations denied their offer. And this made the suffragettes go to the white supremacists, and they tried get their support by claiming that the female vote would help maintain the white dominance in electorate. This alliance went on for years. But the U.S. Supreme Court would not give women the right to vote. Susan was once arrested for trying to vote in 1872. Again in 1875, the Supreme Court ruled against them, and this is when the suffragists began campaigns decades long, with the objective of enfranchising women. This marginalization of women continuously fighting for their rights, went on till 1920, when finally, the 19th Amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution, which said that every citizen had the right to vote irrespective of their sex.
Another group that was illtreated and marginalized was immigrants. By the end of the 19th century, over twenty-five million immigrants had arrived in the United States from many places. These immigrants were cheap labor and provided good quality work and service. Hence, their demand was high. This is when the Nativist Opposition started going against the immigrants. They said that only Anglo-Saxons were true Americans. As the immigrants were in demand, they feared that they might lose their job. They used to say that these immigrants would be a burden to the economy of the nation. The truth was that these immigrants were hard workers who would replace them, but they made them view as lazy people would drain the country’s resources. The government was not happy either, and which is why they came up with some exclusion acts. The government passed the Page Act in 1875 which banned the entry of criminals, Asian laborers brought involuntarily, and women imported for prostitution purposes. In 1882, they passed the Chinese Exclusion Act that suspended all Chinese immigration. The authorities got very strict with the immigrants in the country. Chinese immigrants had to carry documents which were the proof of their legal status. To get rid of more immigrants, they expanded exclusion by going against workers under contract, carriers of disease, polygamists, and radicals.
After the Civil War got over, the black people thought that they got the freedom. But they still faced many problems during the Reconstruction. This was because it was difficult for the White people to accept that the black people were free and equal to them. Many clever laws were passed which kept the black people in the same position as they were before they were freed. For example, to vote, they had to be literate, and those who were illiterate were not allowed to vote. The Government knew that most of the black people were illiterate, which is why they passed this law. They also passed the Grandfather clause which did not allow the black people to vote as it said that only those could vote whose grandfathers had the right to vote. Jim Crow laws were passed too, which mandated segregation on the basis of race. The Jim Crow laws stated, “Separate but equal”. This included segregation of public schools, public transportation, restrooms, drinking fountains and many such things which were different for whites and blacks. Sharecropping was also a way of hurting the black people. They were rented out lands by the white landlords in exchange for a share of the crop. The landlords would then lease equipment, seeds, fertilizers and foods on credit to the renters (blacks), at very high interest rates. This left the tenants indebted, and this is how they suffered.
These three groups suffered a lot and they were given no importance at all. They were illtreated all the time and taken for granted heavily. But by the end of the 1920s, many laws were passed which made the life of all the people in these three group better, and people were given more rights and almost as much equality as the whites (white men). Gradually, these problems came to an end as time passed by, and marginalization was minimized after that.
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