Cover of Harper's Weekly, depicting blacks voting, November 1867

Political upheaval blocked the implementation of Battle's planned reforms. After the war, President Andrew Johnson had offered the ex-Confederates lenient terms for readmission to the Union. In 1867, however, Congress demanded a new approach. So-called "Radical Republicans" required the seceding states to establish new governments that gave black men the right to vote. A Republican coalition of northern newcomers, southern white dissenters, and African Americans took control of North Carolina and other southern states.