Southern Republicans during Reconstruction

A) excluded former Confederates from their ranks.
B) established the South's first state-supported schools.
C) redistributed most former plantation lands to freedmen and poor whites.
D) helped elect African-American governors in four states.
E) ran the most corrupt governments in American history.

State-Supported Schools

Educational institutions that receive funding and support from the government, making education accessible to a larger section of the population.

Southern Republicans

Refers to members of the Republican Party in the Southern United States, especially significant during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War.

Reconstruction

The period after the Civil War in the United States, from 1865 to 1877, focused on the federal government's efforts to restore and rebuild the Southern states that had seceded and integrate African American slaves into society as free men and women.