Historian Rayford Logan of Howard University, described the years, 1877-1900, following the period of Reconstruction as "the nadir in Negro life and history." Many of the modest gains of black Americans following the Civil War were nullified. The national government during the administrations of Rutherford B. Hayes through William McKinley adopted a "hands off" policy toward the "Southern problem." Little assistance came from state and local authorities, and black citizens confronted legalized segregation, discrimination, and political disfranchisement. The postwar period's greatest failure was in the realm of economics. Black leaders advocated land redistribution and education in order that freedmen might acquire financial independence and mobility. In 1900, 90 percent of black Americans still lived in the South where economic realities were grim and the quality of education was poor. Segregation and discrimination were not exclusive to the South but flourished as well in northern cities where civil rights laws went unenforced and racial violence ignited. At the turn of the 19th century, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois articulated the injustices faced by black citizens and the urgency for social change.