Reconstruction sought to address the two most prominent issues after the Civil War: a disunified America and the millions of African Americans who needed social footing after emancipation. While the Union was restored, it is widely accepted that Reconstruction failed to secure civil rights for African Americans in the postbellum South. Indeed, this very failure spawned later efforts to promote the equality of Afro-Americans, such as the civil rights movement of the 1960s. While the causes of Reconstruction’s shortcomings are many, the most momentous reason for its failure took place during the Grant administration (1869-1877). This paper begins with the Radical Republican’s ascendancy in Congress following the Civil War, and Ulysses S. Grant’s relationship with the Republican Party, and evaluates the Grant administration’s disastrous role in the continuation of Reconstruction policy and its devastating implications for African American civil rights in the late 19th century and beyond. Overall, this study argues that despite extensive efforts to promote civil rights, the collapse of Reconstruction can be largely attributed to Grant and his administration; heavily publicized scandals and poor responses to economic turmoil fractured the Republican Party and invited the resurgence of a Democratic agenda hostile to African American rights.