The Compromise of 1877 was an unwritten deal, informally arranged among U.S. Congressmen, that settled the intensely disputed 1876 presidential election. It resulted in the United States federal government pulling the last troops out of the South, and ending the Reconstruction Era. Through the Compromise, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the White House over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden on the understanding that Hayes would remove the federal troops whose support was essential for the survival of Republican state governments in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana.
Under the compromise, Democrats who controlled the House of Representatives allowed the decision of the Electoral Commission to take effect.
These Southern, white, Democratic Redeemer governments legislated Jim Crow laws, officially segregating black people from the white population. Jim Crow laws were a manifestation of authoritarian rule specifically directed at one racial group.