After the abolition of slavery, did life improve for Black Americans?

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After the abolition of slavery, it would hardly be true to say that life suddenly improved for Black Americans. Far from it, in fact things could be well argued which suggest that the situation became far worse before it even remotely became better.

Regular public beatings and lynching through 'white supremacy' organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan were a daily occurrence and segregation between Blacks and Whites became widespread. Tiny wages and poor accommodation combined together to result in a terrible standard of living where many people found it difficult to see how they could possibly survive but which reasons can be placed above all others to explain these consequences?

Although slavery had been abolished, the attitudes of the southern state governments did not change. It was nearly impossible to shake of the notion of being ex-slaves and although on paper they were not as such, this is how they were still viewed and treated. The discriminating Jim Crow laws still existed restricting voting rights, education rights, access to trade unions and the ability to serve on juries. I personally feel that this contributed heavily to the public opinion that the Blacks were still somehow