While the winner of our Civil War, was unequivocal, this victory for the North and of the Union, came at the cost of millions upon millions of dollars spent, as well as the wholesale destruction of vast amounts of valuable property, and the unfortunate lost of the lives of thousands upon thousands of soldiers on either side of the conflict, of which the end result was that the Union thereupon did become united; and that further, time has proven that the United States of America has essentially become in fit, form, and function, truly united, though the southern States, still are laggards in asserting and enforcing progressive rights for those that were formerly enslaved. So too, the 13th-15th Amendments, made it federal law, that the abomination of slavery was eradicated, once and forever, and further that the freedman were granted citizenship, while also winning their enfranchisement of the vote.
Unfortunately, the great tragedy of the reconstruction period is that the federal government did not do what it should and ought to have done in order to materially aid in the uplifting of the black race, for to merely grant freedom to a people that for the most part, own nothing, were illiterate, and had marketable skills that primarily could only be successfully utilized for somebody else that had both the capital and property, meant that blacks, though free, were stuck in an endless cycle of still being subservient and thereby vulnerable to those that held those very things, which just so happened to be, their former slave masters. Further to the point, one of the most crucial ways to rise up from poverty for those that have little or no material assets, is through the value of a good education, which thereupon opens up additional doors and opportunities; for those that are educated do not necessarily have to have capital in order to achieve something of substance, because their knowledge, is an asset in and of itself which can be through their labor, converted essentially into money, and thereby a ready means for their livelihood.
So then, essentially, the promise of reconstruction for the black race, was a promissory note that has never fully been paid; and while the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s, the Great Society programs and other programs of this sort in general, as well as Affirmative Action, were most definitely important and vital steps in righting this wrong, the economic conditions for the black race, as well as the justice or lack thereof that they receive, in addition to the fair opportunities that should be provided to them, has not been ever fully rectified. This signifies, that this country still has a moral and ethical duty to right those wrongs that slavery did wrought, and through the power and breadth of this present day federal government, needs thereby to make a concerted effort to do that very thing, for those that have no or little property, inferior educational facilities, and are targeted far more often for judicial punishments, are not fully free, and thereby are not truly freedmen.