How effective was presidential and radical, or congressional, Reconstruction in effectively adjusting the lives of African Americans from that of slaves to citizens? It seems to me that, if anything, Reconstruction did little apart from free African Americans in theory; they were still economically dependant on their former slave masters, they possessed little political rights at a state level despite the Reconstruction era amendments, and consequently they were subject to institutionalised racism. Why after reconstruction did their lives not improve to the same level as white citizens? Is it fair to say the era was a failure?
u/freedmenspatrol posted a good answer for that here. The brief answer is that the freedmen remained subservient to the white Southerners because Reconstruction was stopped. Despite Radical Republican support and legislation in Congress, Andrew Johnson tried to stop it and eliminate the Freedmans Bureau. Grant made some efforts early in his terms to support it . But faced with constant violent Southern white intransigence, and waning public support for the freedmen in the North, Grant finally pretty much abandoned the effort to protect black voters , and with the Hayes/Tilden election dispute in 1876 the Republicans acquiesced to Southern white demands in order to have Hayes as President.