Black Code of Mississippi

Questions for Further Study

• 1. Compare the Mississippi Black Code with the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws promulgated in Nazi Germany in 1935. Examine the impetus behind each. How are they similar and how different?
• 2. Compare the Mississippi Black Code with the antebellum Ohio Black Code. Did emancipation succeed in bringing about changes in the status of Blacks? How or how not?
• 3. President Andrew Johnson was at the center of Reconstruction of the Confederate states after the Civil War. Although he considered the southern slave-owning plantation class to be traitors to the Union, his policies leaned toward winning back the loyalty of the South. Can his views and actions be considered tacit approval of the South’s efforts to restrict the freedom of former slaves? For context, see Johnson’s Veto of the Civil Rights Act and Veto of the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill.