Historical connections to Reconstruction surround us today: the Movement for Black Lives, rising white supremacist violence, virulent voter suppression, multiracial movements to address policing and labor, political efforts to ban accurate history from classrooms, and racial disparities in COVID-19 mortality rates. With bullets, nooses, laws, and threats, politicians and vigilantes worked to overturn the radical promise of Reconstruction and end multiracial democracy in the South for a century. However, this “new birth of freedom” for African Americans was met with a white supremacist backlash. Four million formerly enslaved people gained freedom and made strong claims on political, economic, and social equality. Reconstruction was a moment of profound hope and devastating loss. Latschar (Fort Washington: Eastern National Publishing, 2016), 19.Įven as ongoing crises with obvious links to the Reconstruction era continue to reinforce its significance today, most people living in the United States know shockingly little about the policies, people, conflicts, and ideas that shaped Reconstruction and its aftermath. In 2016, the National Park Service described Reconstruction as “one of the most complicated, poorly understood, and significant periods in American history.” 1 Kate Masur and Gregory Downs, “Introduction” in The Reconstruction Era: Official National Park Service Handbook ed.
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