4. The emergence of Confederate memorial societies and associations
During the period of Reconstruction, occupying federal troops protected the freedmen and their families in the South from newly formed terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the White League. White supremacists in the south often found allies in corrupt Union officers, susceptible to bribes and other perquisites offered by Southern leaders. Nonetheless, the laws regarding voters’ rights and free land for farms were more or less enforced, to the rage of former Confederates determined to restore the antebellum South. When the last Union occupying troops withdrew at the end of Reconstruction, Southern state governments moved quickly to enact laws suppressing the black vote.
At the same time, the Jim Crow laws began to take shape across the South, numerous societies and associations evolved to present the Lost Cause to white society as it again exerted its domination over southern culture. Groups such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the United Confederate Veterans, the Ladies Memorial Association (with numerous local branches), and like-minded gatherings determined to honor the legacy presented in the Lost Cause grew in influence. At the same time, honoring Confederate leaders as heroes served to establish unity, intimidating those who opposed Jim Crow. It was then the movement to create monuments to former Confederate leaders throughout the South took hold, and it grew well into the 20th century.