Was the Reconstruction period a success or failure?

According to Digital History, historians have viewed Reconstruction as a success. They attribute this to the changing race relations that occurred centuries after in economic, social and political spheres.

Reconstruction was a turbulent time as the aftermath of the Civil War left unanswered the fate of former slaves. Congress responded by passing Constitutional amendments and laws aimed to help freedmen. Although, the South saw rise to the Ku Klux Klan which preached white supremacy and eventually political help from the North diminished. In that time, citizens considered Reconstruction to be characterized by corruption and used this to justify Jim Crow policies of the 1960s.