NARRATOR
After ten tumultuous years, Reconstruction died in 1877 in a back-room deal in Washington. The outcome of the presidential election the year before had been bitterly disputed. The two parties came to a secret compromise. Southern Democrats agreed to accept a Republican in the White House. In return, the Republicans agreed to abandon Reconstruction.

WALKER
The whole Civil War and Reconstruction process had been characterized by a deep ambivalence on the part of the North. And that ambivalence by 1870s, by the late 1870s, has crystallized into, "Let's cut our losses and get out. And the best thing is to leave this to the people who know best how to handle it."

NARRATOR
B.W. Marston took Marshall Twitchell's seat as state senator.

MARSTON
The North won the war. In northwest Louisiana, we won Reconstruction.

NARRATOR
On April 24, 1877, a crowd lined the streets of New Orleans, as the last of the federal troops stationed there marched towards the steamship that would take them away. The cheers were deafening. Someone let out a rebel yell. The retreat of the North left blacks across the South feeling betrayed and deeply in danger.

WALKER
You fight a bloody war, and you set people on the road to freedom, and then when they make an effort to establish themselves, that road is pulled out from under them and they are left to the people who are their enemies.