Editing Reconstruction era (section)

===Final three Reconstruction states admitted===
Immediately upon inauguration in 1869, Grant bolstered Reconstruction by prodding Congress to readmit [[Virginia]], [[Mississippi]], and [[Texas]] into the Union, while ensuring their state constitutions protected every citizen's voting rights.<ref name="Spxiii">{{Cite book |last=Simon |first=John Y. |title=Papers of Ulysses S. Grant |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |year=1967 |isbn=9780809319640 |volume=19 |location=Carbondale |pages=xiii}}</ref>

Grant advocated the ratification of the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifteenth Amendment]] that said states could not disenfranchise [[African Americans]].{{sfnp|Simon|2002}} Within a year, the three remaining states—Mississippi, Virginia, and Texas—adopted the new amendment—and were admitted to Congress.{{sfnmp|Brands|2012|1pp=435, 465|Chernow|2017|2pp=686–687|Simon|2002|3p=247}} Grant put military pressure on Georgia to reinstate its black legislators and adopt the new amendment.{{sfnp|Brands|2012|p=465}} Georgia complied, and on February 24, 1871, its senators were seated in Congress, with all the former Confederate states represented.{{sfnp|Simon|2002|p=246}} Southern Reconstructed states were controlled by Republicans and former slaves. Eight years later, in 1877, the Democratic Party had full control of the region and Reconstruction was dead.{{sfnp|Simon|2002|pp=247–248}}