Evaluate the effectiveness of Reconstruction-era laws and policies (1865–1877) in protecting the civil rights and economic opportunities of formerly enslaved people; assess key laws and institutions (13th–15th Amendments, Civil Rights Act of 1866, Freedmen’s Bureau, Enforcement Acts), economic arrangements (sharecropping, land initiatives), and opposing forces (Black Codes, vigilante violence, Compromise of 1877), and make an evidence-based judgment about short-term gains, lasting limitations, and long-term legacy.