G@G Relearn U.S. History—Black Americans and Reconstruction

Mick Chantler, Instructor

Register for Session Three: Black Americans and Reconstruction

Wednesday, November 30

10:30-noon

The Civil War may have ended slavery, but it certainly did not solve the conundrum of race relations in America. Northern “radicals” in Congress—led by men like the fiery Thaddeus Stevens—were determined to use this precious window of opportunity to permanently alter the status of African Americans, and guarantee them constitutional liberty and equality. Recalcitrant Southerners were just as determined to thwart any substantive change in the racial hierarchy of Old Dixie. The stage was set for a violent and painful showdown between the forces of progress and reaction. (Sound familiar?) We will examine the three key constitutional amendments passed during Reconstruction—the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th amendments—and see how they changed American politics, at least for a brief period. (Reconstruction ended in 1877 and for nearly a century Blacks were kept in a subservient state embarrassingly close to that which they had endured under slavery.)

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