Chapter 16 notes Reconstruction During the reconstruction period immediately following the Civil War, African Americans struggled to become equal members of a democratic republic. They produced a number of remarkable leaders who showed that blacks were as capable as other Americans of voting, holding office, and legislating for a complex and rapidly changing society. Yet the tragedy of Reconstruction was that blacks and whites who tried to form a more egalitarian society in the South lacked the means to achieve their aims. -how to reconstruct the union Dec. 1863 -President Lincoln issued his ?Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction? -required former Confederates to take loyalty oaths