Reconstruction

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  6/26/2020
  

  Beyond ‘White Fragility’: If you Want to Let Freedom Ring, Hammer on Economic Injustice.

  by Jamelle Bouie

  The histories of Reconstruction by W.E.B. Du Bois and Eric Foner, as well as the later speeches and writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. demonstrate that the cause of racial justice has never been separable from closing the vast economic gulf between owners and workers in America. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  6/26/2020
  

  Racist Violence in Wilmington’s Past Echoes in Police Officer Recordings Today

  by Crystal R. Sanders

  Wilmington, North Carolina police officers who spoke eagerly about the chance to kill black protesters evoke the history of a violent white supremacist coup against the city's biracial government during Reconstruction.

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• 6/28/2020
  

  “A Very Different Story”: Marian Sims and Reconstruction

  by David B. Parker

  Marian Sims's 1942 historical novel Beyond Surrender was not nearly as popular as Gone with the Wind. But it reminds us today of a history that might have been--both during Reconstruction and in the popular portrayal of the period.

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• SOURCE: Commonweal
  6/23/2020
  

  American Oligarchy: ‘How the South Won the Civil War’

  A review of Heather Cox Richardson's book How the South Won the Civil War.

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  6/16/2020
  

  US Congress could Use Reconstruction-Era Civil Rights Powers to Protect Black Lives Today

  by Richard Johnson

  The U.S. House of Representatives could use a provision of the 14th Amendment to strip congressional representation from states that suppress the voting rights of black residents. 

• 
• SOURCE: FiveThirtyEight
  6/9/2020
  

  1968 Isn’t The Only Parallel For This Political Moment

  Black Americans have a long history of fighting for racial justice — and the system has a long history of failing them.

• 
• SOURCE: WAMU
  6/5/2020
  

  Historian Eric Foner On The ‘Unresolved Legacy Of Reconstruction’ (Audio)

  In a very prescient interview from 2006, Foner argues that the failed promises of Reconstruction reverberate today.

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  5/22/2020
  

  The Overlooked Black History of Memorial Day

  by Olivia B. Waxman

  The role of African Americans in creating a day of tribute to the Union Army has been obscured by pro-Confederate narratives of national reconcilation after the overthrow of Reconstruction.

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• SOURCE: WGBH
  5/18/2020
  

  Did The South Win The Civil War?

  In this podcast, Historian Heather Cox Richardson discusses her new book "How The South Won The Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, And The Continuing Fight For The Soul Of America."

• 
• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  4/10/2020
  

  "How the South Won the Civil War" Review: One Side Kept Fighting

  At the outset of the war, the great majority of Northerners wanted to reunify the country more or less on prewar terms.

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• SOURCE: TIME
  4/7/2020
  

  How the Civil War Changed the Way Americans Thought About Economic Inequality

  by Daniel R. Mandell

  As the Civil War became a campaign to end slavery, some leading Republicans envisioned using confiscation to reshape the aristocratic South into a more equal society in terms of property ownership and power.

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• SOURCE: Crain's Cleveland Business
  3/30/2020
  

  And The Winners of the 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Are ...

  Henry Louis Gates Jr., who chairs the Anisfield-Wolf jury, said in a statement that the winners "bring us fresh insights on race and diversity."

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• SOURCE: American Civil War Museum
  3/30/2020
  

  15th Turns 150!

  The presence of new citizens in the form of formerly enslaved people forced Congress to consider what citizenship and voting actually meant. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  3/13/2020
  

  Work Requirements are Catastrophic in a Pandemic

  by Elisa Minoff

  Instead, we should be implementing policies that support people’s work in the wage labor force and make it possible for working families to make ends meet.

• 
• SOURCE: Letters from an American
  2/23/20
  

  Has America Ever Been in Such a Crisis Before? Yes, Three Times

  by Heather Cox Richardson

  A lot of folks have been asking me lately if America has ever been in such a crisis before and, if so, what people in the past did to save democracy. The answer to the first question is yes, it has, three times.

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• 2/23/20
  

  Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the 15th Amendment

  by Alan Singer

  February 2020 is the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution declaring “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

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• SOURCE: NY Times
  2/14/20
  

  There Have Been 10 Black Senators Since Emancipation

  by Eric Foner

  Elected 150 years ago, Hiram Revels was the first.

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• SOURCE: NY Times
  2/15/20
  

  The Equality That Wasn’t Enough

  by Jamelle Bouie

  The most radical Radical Republicans had a better idea of how to cast the 15th Amendment. We should have listened to them.

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• 2/2/20
  

  How the South Dominated American Education

  by John Heffron

  An excerpt from John Heffron's The Rise of the South in American Thought and Education: The Rockefeller Years (1902-1917). 

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  1/3/20
  

  What everyone should know about Reconstruction 150 years after the 15th Amendment’s ratification

  by Tiffany Mitchell Patterson

  Here are some suggestions for educators and others interested in learning more about that time period.