1865 - 1896
After the civil war and during Reconstruction African Americans were elected to local, state, and federal offices. Heroes of the colored race was the artist J. Hoover's depiction of the possibilities of what America looked like at that time. At least in his eyes and he wanted to show that.
African Americans made a lot of progress during Reconstruction. Having signed the One Dollar Treasury Note was significant and soon after the achievements of Reconstruction were over. Jim Crow was the new law of the land at least as far as the south was concerned and there would not be another Senator or Governor elected for a hundred years.
Backlash from white America culminated with the Plessy v. Ferguson case in which the Supreme Court decided that segregation was now law of the land.
After the civil war African American were granted their "freedom" by Abraham Lincoln signing