text: From 1867 to 1874, with most white citizens barred temporarily from voting and freedmen enfranchised, many African Americans emerged as political leaders in the state.Alabama was represented in Congress during this period by three African-American congressmen: Jeremiah Haralson, Benjamin S.Turner, and James T.Rapier.Following the war, the state remained chiefly agricultural, with an economy tied to cotton.During Reconstruction, state legislators ratified a new state constitution in 1868 which created the state's first public school system and expanded women's rights.Legislators funded numerous public road and railroad projects, although these were plagued with allegations of fraud and misappropriation.Organized insurgent, resistance groups tried to suppress the freedmen and Republicans.Besides the short-lived original Ku Klux Klan, these included the Pale Faces, Knights of the White Camellia, Red Shirts, and the White League.Reconstruction in Alabama ended in 1874, when the Democrats regained control of the legislature and governor's office through an election dominated by fraud and violence.They wrote another constitution in 1875, and the legislature passed the Blaine Amendment, prohibiting public money from being used to finance religious-affiliated schools.The same year, legislation was approved that called for racially segregated schools.Railroad passenger cars were segregated in 1891.20th century The new 1901 Constitution of Alabama included provisions for voter registration that effectively disenfranchised large portions of the population, including nearly all African Americans and Native Americans, and tens of thousands of poor European Americans, through making voter registration difficult, requiring a poll tax and literacy test.The 1901 constitution required racial segregation of public schools.By 1903 only 2,980 African Americans were registered in Alabama, although at least 74,000 were literate.