Following the Presidential election of 1876, Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic candidate, seemed poised to win the presidency. However, four southern states submitted competing slates of electors giving Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican candidate, a one-vote electoral vote lead. When the matter went to Congress, negotiations produced a compromise in which Hayes was awarded the presidency and in return he would remove the remaining federal troops from the south and end Reconstruction.
With the end of Reconstruction, the southern states were free to implement a series of laws known as Jim Crow laws that severely restricted the rights and opportunities of African Americans. These laws effectively disenfranchised African Americans, making it nearly impossible to vote and to participate in the political process. They also led to the de jure and de facto segregation of African Americans in all aspects of American life.
The Compromise of 1877 effectively abandoned African Americans to the white-controlled southern state governments. The loss of federal oversight allowed for the institutionalization of racial discrimination in the South and set the stage for a century of racial segregation and inequality.