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These are but three examples of the complex roles that Black politicians played in the era of Reconstruction at the state level. While Smalls, Gibbs, and Pinchback were all involved in educational policy, others on the state level sought to redistribute land and wealth, develop fairer policies around labor contracts, forestall the convict leasing system, create state-level civil rights protections, and ensure voting rights. In each state, however, their work was undermined through mob violence, the duplicity of the Republican party (their erstwhile allies), and a failing economy exacerbated by the monopolistic system of the railroad companies. In the histories prior to the work of Du Bois, Blacks are blamed for these failures, but we know now that the picture is varied and complicated.
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====Political Work on the Federal Level====
[[File:hiramrevels.jpg|thumbnail|left|Hiram Revels, the first Black Senator, representing Mississippi]]
A number of Black politicians made their way to service in Congress. According to Du Bois, the main issue on their agenda revolved around securing “themselves civil rights, to aid education, and to settle the question of the political disabilities of their former masters.” They “advocated local improvements, including the distribution of public lands, public buildings, and appropriations for rivers and harbors…” A lot of this work sought to use the power of the federal government to aid in the transformation of the country through redistributive policies. As such, the legacy of the politicians who served in Congress was one of imaginative economic reform. Members of that group include the first Black senator from Mississippi, Hiram Revels, as well as the aforementioned Robert Smalls and John R. Lynch, and finally, important figures such as Blanche K. Bruce, Joseph H. Rainey, and Robert C. DeLarge.
By the mid-1870s, the political context had shifted. The Northern industrialists having gotten a foothold into the economic systems of the South, began to withdraw their support for the Black vote and for these economic reforms. Along with the violence that never abated, Black politicians struggled to bring home many of the promises that their political ideas portended. With the Panic of 1873, things came to a head. By the 1876 election, much of the political vision of Black and progressive/radical politicians was on the wane and Reconstruction came to a close with the Compromise that settled that year’s election.
====Conclusion====
