Henry Louis Gates- Reconstruction Video

                Reconstruction of America- Post Civil War

                                                         Reflection 

The 2015 shooting at a historic Black church in Charleston starkly reminded America that the wounds of Reconstruction remain unhealed nearly 150 years later. When a 21-year-old high school dropout opened fire during a prayer service, the nation was forced to confront how the achievements and failures of Reconstruction continue to shape racial tensions today.

                                                                         Dylann Roof

Reconstruction officially meant restoring rebel states to the Union, but the North and South viewed this process very differently. The period began with promise—180,000 Black men had joined the Union Army, and Lincoln advocated for voting rights for "intelligent Black men." However, John Wilkes Booth's assassination of Lincoln on Good Friday fundamentally altered Reconstruction's trajectory.

Andrew Johnson, the first president "made by an assassin's bullet," proved to be no friend to formerly enslaved people. Growing up as a poor white Southerner, Johnson failed to capitalize on the opportunity to make former slaves economically independent. Despite the Freedmen's Bureau distributing 850,000 acres, Johnson's administration allowed the creation of Black Codes—laws that applied only to Black people—effectively recreating slavery through legal means.

President Johnson in Congress

Violence erupted across the South. The KKK formed in Tennessee in 1866, and riots in Memphis left the army struggling for three days to restore order. Months later, 40 more Black people were killed by whites in New Orleans. These atrocities prompted Congress to seize control of Reconstruction and pass the 14th Amendment in July 1868.

                                                                               The Klan

The period's contradictions were stark: while Black people sat in the Senate for the first time, newspaper ads from former slaves desperately searching for family members separated by slavery filled pages. Even 100 years after emancipation, Black Americans were still fighting for basic rights.

Today's racial debates echo Reconstruction's unfinished business, proving that America's reckoning with slavery and equality remains incomplete.

Ai disclaimer: I used Claude AI to organize my notes from class to make this blog post