[ywvcbk]

> end of the reconstruction period

To be fair civil rights and relative racial equality was imposed by an (effectively) foreign army of occupation.

That army leaving is what led to Jim Crow, there was hardly any meaningful bottom-top societal change since the local Republican governments could have never survived without significant external support anyway.

KKK/etc. were effectively an unofficial enforcement branch / citizen militia of the local elites and state governments.

IMHO the situation was a bit like the war in Afghanistan (just with a slightly narrower cultural gap). Women rights could only survive as long as the US/NATO force were there to impose them and they reverted to the status quo as soon as the foreign militaries left.