Reconstruction governments, such as the emphasis on common school education, have just as sedulously been belittled. In 1875 the second Civil Rights Act was passed, designed to give Negroes equality of treatment in theaters, railway cars, hotels, etc.; but this the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional in 1883. Meanwhile the KuKlux Klan was already at work; the withdrawal of the Federal troops and the wholesale removal of disabilities by Congress weakened the Reconstruction governments; and thus the way was paved for democratic success in the South. Now ensued a period of such harshness in the ordinary life of the Negro as can not easily be imagined. The general lack of protection in the country districts and the greater economic attractiveness of the cities led many laborers to leave the farms and to find an outlet in some other occupations. To counteract this movement the "convict lease system" appeared in all its hideousness. By every possible means the effort was made to bind the Negro laborer to the soil, and in numberless instances not even the sanctity of his home life was regarded. At the same time, in ordinary intercourse with his fellowmen, many times a day was he subjected to personal indignities. By 1879, by reason of such things as these, as well as excessive rents and the exorbitant prices at some stores, matters had become so bad as in many places to be no longer tolerable. Not unnaturally many Negroes had come to fear that they were about to be remanded to slavery. A general convention in Nashville in May, 1879, adopted a report that set forth their grievances and encouraged migration to the North and West. Thousands now left their homes in the South, going in greatest numbers to Kansas, Missouri, and Indiana. Within about twenty months Kansas alone received thus an addition to her population of 40,000 Negroes. Difficulties of adjustment of course arose, but the whole movement was sufficient to prove utterly false the contention of some that no amount of unfairness and injustice in the South would induce the Negro to move away.