The Reconstruction Acts of 1867–68 — all passed over Andrew Johnson's vetoes — placed ten former Confederate states under military rule, required them to draft new constitutions guaranteeing Black male suffrage, and conditioned readmission to Congress on ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment. The Acts made possible the brief but transformative period of Reconstruction — Black officeholders across the South, public school systems, and the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment. Their withdrawal after the Compromise of 1877 opened the door to Jim Crow.