Was the Reconstruction Era after the American Civil War a success or failure? Why?

I believe it was
a failure.  A ten-year period of attempting to re-program Southern society into behaving fairly
towards all races did little to address the real problem - entrenched belief systems that aren't
altered by policing and policies.  You cannot change a person's heart issues.  Racism goes
deeper than behavior.  The following decades proved that although some progress was begun, the
old regime regained power despite efforts to turn over all old governmental footholds.  Many
African Americans found their way to the North to gain opportunities they would never have been
afforded in the South.  If the goal of Reconstruction was to reunite the nation and rebuild the
South, it's hard to look at any of the evidence and say it was a success - judging from the
direction of American society in the years following:  still divided, still
broken.