To what extent did Reconstruction improve the lives of African Americans in the southern US?

Candidates will consider the merits or otherwise of the suggestion that Reconstruction improved the lives of African Americans in the southern US. Candidates could focus on the social, economic and political conditions faced by African Americans after the Civil War and determine whether Reconstruction improved these conditions. Most candidates are likely to indicate that Reconstruction did not improve the lives of African Americans, but some could argue that there were some improvements. Candidates are likely to discuss the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, The Freedmen’s Bureau and the Military Reconstruction Act. By 1870, almost all the early successes were reversed. African Americans were denied the right to vote and black codes were established and enforced by the Ku Klux Klan. Many former slaves became sharecroppers, which was not much better than slavery. When Reconstruction ended in 1877, African-Americans were no longer slaves, but they were second-class citizens.