Does depend on the region, at least: there were numerous towns in the Reconstruction South that elected black leadership, only to have hate mobs storm through those towns and commit arson, lynchings, and more until they could ensure the elected black delegations couldn't be seated (this included lynching the actual elected leaders). It took Congress and U.S. Grant signing the Force Acts, known popularly as the KKK Act, to get the armed forces into gear and literally put down the Klan and its associated forces during that era. Unfortunately, when Benjamin Harrison wanted to win the super-close election of 1876, one of the compromises he made to get the electoral support he needed was that he'd pull the troops out of the South, thus effectively empowering the white power structures to make a full comeback and fully leading into the Jim Crow era as it was widely understood. So it becomes a mixed bag: the first black Congresspeople and Senators were elected during Reconstruction, but like you said, the eventual withdrawal of federal support for Reconstruction projects made the ensuing white supremacy all the more potent and toxic.
...Sorry, US History teacher, I can't help myself.
