Compromise of 1877 ends federal protection for Reconstruction governments

The contested presidential election of 1876 is resolved in 1877 through a political settlement that helps make Rutherford B. Hayes president and leads to the withdrawal of remaining federal troops from the South. The withdrawal weakens federal protection for Reconstruction governments and Black political rights. White supremacist Democrats regain state power across the South and build systems of segregation, disfranchisement, and racial terror. The formal end of Reconstruction opens the way for Jim Crow law and one-party white rule. Federal retreat from enforcement leaves Black citizens exposed to state and private racial domination for generations.