After the Civil War was over, the United States was left with picking up the pieces of a mangled union. This time period was called Reconstruction. The problem with Congressional Reconstruction was the fight between the Radical Republicans and President Andrew Johnson. Simply put, the Republicans did not believe the Johnson administration was being harsh enough or going far enough in the treatment of the Confederate states.

Southern states retaliated after the war by killing African Americans and enacting anti-black codes into their state government. The Republicans ultimately took over Congress in the 1866 midterms and crippled Andrew Johnson. Congressional Reconstruction took total control after 1866.

What followed was a wash of legislative acts aimed at protecting African Americans and punishing the former Confederacy. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was passed. The 14th amendment was passed and then ratified in 1868, which guaranteed citizenship to anyone born in the United States.

The Reconstruction Act of 1867 was another powerful move by the new congress. It deemed African Americans legally viable to vote in the Southern states, even before the constitutionally-protected 15th Amendment. The 15th Amendment was ratified later in 1870 and granted African American men the right to vote in the United States. This Congressional Reconstruction carried on throughout Johnson's term and was supported by the newly elected Ulysses S. Grant in 1868. The movement faded in the 1870s as the more liberal Republicans began to take back power.