Last night's readings illustrate a common truth.... politicans are scum sucking parisites. In a nutshell, Republicans, the "champions" of the black cause in Reconstruction, sold them out for the Presidential seat. I disagree with Mike, in that the black population only got a taste of freedom, which is worse in my opion than laying a "foundation." The civil rights movement began in the 1960s; the movement initiated by the radical republicans teased the blacks with a hint of equality, only to bring them crashing back to the reality that the majority of the country loathed their existence. While Reconstruction began with good intentions, the betrayal in the 1876 election only made to evident that Republicans and Democrats alike had their own intersts in mind rather than the freedmen.