1865-1877: Reconstruction and Rights
Big Idea
After Congress ended slavery, African Americans focused on improving their lives during Reconstruction. The federal government kept troops posted in the South to uphold their rights and ensure the full dismantling of the slave system. Despite progress, violence against Black individuals persisted from those who may have lost the war but did not change their mind about Black inferiority.
What’s important to know?
Constitutional Amendments: After the Civil War, Congress passed three amendments to the Constitution abolishing slavery, providing full citizenship and rights to Black Americans, and providing voting protections regardless of race.
Black Leadership: During the early stages of Reconstruction, Black leaders rose up, served in state and federal government positions, built schools, and helped elevate not only themselves but poor White people around them as well.
Violence and Backlash: During Reconstruction, violence continued against free Black men and women by those who had lost the war but not changed their minds as to Black inferiority. When the Federal Government pulled troops and funding out of the South, Southern White leaders pushed back the many reforms initiated under Black leadership and reinstated prior hierarchies restricting access to the vote, means of transportation, and education.
1: Constitutional Amendments
Immediately after the Civil War, the Reconstruction Congress passed Amendments to the Constitution.
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and indentured servitude.
The 14th Amendment granted African Americans full citizenship and equal rights under the law.
The 15th Amendment provided voting protection rights regardless of race, color, or previous status as an enslaved man.
“Emancipation of the Negro - The Past and the Future”
Harper’s Weekly
Image Source: Wikipedia
2: Black Leadership
Freed Black Men, Women, and Children
Image Source: Library of Congress
Early Reconstruction efforts enabled Black people to purchase land, build communities, form churches, vote for government officials, run for government offices, and develop schools for their children (Thompson Fullilove, 2016, p. 22).
As historian Eric Foner (2014) noted, “blacks were active agents in the making of Reconstruction” (p. xxii). He goes further to say that the extent to which free Blacks engaged in rebuilding their communities “was the most radical development of the Reconstruction years, a massive experience in interracial democracy without precedent in the history of this or any other country that abolished slavery in the nineteenth century” (p. xxiii).
“[During the] Reconstruction years, [Blacks led] a massive experience in interracial democracy without precedent in the history of this or any other country that abolished slavery in the nineteenth century.”
Listen
Listen to these podcasts from Seizing Freedom. In the first podcast, listen to the introduction of this season where the topic is Reconstruction. Many think of the Reconstruction as a failure, but in this episode that conclusion is interrogated and found to be lacking. In the second episode, historian Tera Hunter describe how African Americans created their working lives after the Civil War and found agency and joy in the process.
Students
Want to learn more? Did you know that over 600 Black men were elected to federal, state, and local offices during the early parts of the Reconstruction? Watch the video below to learn more about the Black political leaders of Reconstruction.
Time video on the Black Politicians of Reconstruction
3: White Backlash
Even as Black people embraced the freedom they had been fighting for since 1619, they also faced ongoing threats of violence. The Equal Justice Initiative, led by Brian Stevenson (n.d.), documented 2,000 lynchings between 1865 and 1876 (Chapter 3).
Watch
Watch the video below about to learn about the lynchings and racial violence perpetuated against Black people during Reconstruction.
Lynching and racial violence during Reconstruction from the Equal Justice Initiative.
The freedom and equality of access experienced in the early years of Reconstruction did not last. When Congress withdrew military forces from the South, like a tightly stretched rubber band, the reaction was swift and painful.
Known as “Jim Crow,” White leaders in the South reinstated practices that made it much harder for Black people to engage freely in life. Voting became limited, Black people lost their positions in government, economic opportunities shrunk, and education became segregated and underfunded.
Community Members
James Milton Turner
Image Source: Wikipedia
Did you know? James Milton Turner of Kirkwood, Missouri became the assistant superintendent of schools to the Governor of Missouri in 1865.
He worked to establish schools around the state that would serve Black students. And he helped establish a teachers school to train more teachers. He set up 32 schools across the state and worked with returning Black veterans to establish Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City (now Lincoln University).
As a boy, he had been sold into slavery for $50 on the stairs of the St. Louis US Courthouse. His father later purchased his freedom and the freedom of his family. (Christensen, 1975 and 1982).
Your Turn
What would like today be like if Reconstruction had continued to be as successful as it was at the beginning? How does its failure continue to impact the U.S. today?
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Explore a variety of Reconstruction materials from the Library of Congress.
Explore primary sources from Facing History & Ourselves here.
Watch the PBS documentary series, Reconstruction: America after the Civil War from Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Listen to the Slate podcast with Jamelle Bouie and Rebecca Onion on the reconstruction era.
Listen to Seizing Freedom, a podcast docudrama, hosted by historian Kidada E. Williams.
Read more about reconstruction from the Equal Justice Initiative.
Explore the Freedman and Southern Society Project website.
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3-Week Lesson Plan on the Reconstruction Era from Facing History & Ourselves (grades 9-12).
iCivics Education Lesson Plan on Reconstruction (grades 6-8).
Learning for Justice lesson plans on the Reconstruction Era (middle and high school).
NEH EDSITEment materials on the Reconstruction Era.
Zinn Education Project lessons on reconstruction (middle and high school)
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General Resources:
Read this Reconstruction timeline from PBS.
Books & Articles:
Read this article about seven segregation cases involving Black women and transportation in St. Louis.
Archives:
Research primary source materials at the State Historical Society.
Museums & State Parks:
Read about reconstruction in Missouri from the National Park Service.
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Du Bois, W.E.B. (1935). Black Reconstruction in America: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880. New York.
Emberton, C. (2016). Unwriting the Freedom Narrative: A Review Essay. Journal of Southern History 82: 377–94.
Hunter, T. (1997). To ’Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors after the Civil War. Harvard University Press.
Jeffries, H. (2009). “Conditions Unfavorable to the Rise of the Negro: The Pursuit of Freedom Rights before the Civil Rights Era,” in Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt. New York University Press. pp. 7–38.
Kelley, R. D. G. (2002). Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Beacon.
Stevenson, B. (n.d.) Chapter 3: Documenting Reconstruction Violence. Equal Justice Initiative.
Thomspon Fullilove, M. (2016). Root shock: How tearing up city neighborhoods hurts America, and what we can do about it. New Village Press.
Williams, K. E. (2012). They Left Great Marks on Me: African American Testimonies of Racial Violence from Emancipation to World War I. New York University Press.
Willis, D. and Krauthamer, B. (2012). Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery. Temple University Press.
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Christensen, L. O. (1975). “J. Milton Turner: An Appraisal.” Missouri Historical Review, Volume 070 Issue 1.
——-. (1982). “Schools for Blacks: J. Milton Turner in Reconstruction Missouri.” Missouri Historical Review, Volume 076 Issue 2.
Foner, E. (2014). Reconstruction: America's unfinished revolution, 1863-1877. HarperPerennial.
Stevenson, B. (n.d.) Chapter 3: Documenting Reconstruction Violence. Equal Justice Initiative.
Thomspon Fullilove, M. (2016). Root shock: How tearing up city neighborhoods hurts America, and what we can do about it. New Village Press.