During the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, the North experienced economic and political progress, while the South remained impoverished and politically dominated by white supremacists. Racial violence, including lynching, was prevalent in the South, while legislation limited Black voting rights and endorsed segregation. The Redeemers, a coalition of merchants and planters, aimed to reverse the advancements made during Reconstruction. They shut down public schools, enacted laws resembling the Black Codes, and implemented a system of convict leasing for labor. Despite claims of progress, violence against Black people worsened, with the ghosts of the Confederate army shaping Southern African Americans' lives. Laws disguised as color blind, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, were designed to hinder Black political power. Segregation became widespread after the Supreme Court's endorsement in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case, while Booker T. Washington advocated for accepting segregation. However, W.E.B. Du Bois criticized this approach, highlighting the disenfranchisement and civil inferiority it imposed. The Southern legal system perpetuated white supremacy, using various means to assert dominance over African Americans and maintain racial separation.