Reconstruction was the key turning point in U.S. history
---- a period of democratic promise like no other. But a promise foreclosed by the terrorism of the defeated white elites seeking to hold on to "their" South. Missing from the story of Reconstruction was the extraordinary experiment in grassroots multiracial democracy this moment represented
---- land reform, public schools, expanded voting rights, greater equality. To help teach a fuller history of Reconstruction, we share the article "Five Myths About Reconstruction" by James Loewen, followed by Bill Bigelow's lesson, "Reconstructing the South: A Role Play." If you have used this lesson, we want to hear from you. We will send you a free copy of
A Short History of Reconstruction for your time.
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Five Myths About Reconstruction
By James W. Loewen
This is the sesquicentennial of the Reconstruction era in the United States,
that period after the Civil War when African Americans briefly enjoyed full civil and political rights. African Americans
---- 200,000 of them
---- had fought in that war, which made it hard to deny them equal rights. Unlike with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, however, few historic places tell us what happened during Reconstruction. They could: Every plantation home had a Reconstruction history, often fascinating, but these manors remain frozen in time around 1859. They tell a tale of elegance and power, and Reconstruction was the era when that power was challenged. Moreover, it is still true, as W.E.B. Du Bois put it in
Black Reconstruction 80 years ago, that "
one cannot study Reconstruction without first frankly facing the facts of universal lying." Here are five common fallacies that Americans still tell themselves about this formative period.
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