In this activity you will be exploring the “Reconstruction in America” report from the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). The EJI is a modern nonprofit organization founded by lawyer and author Bryan Stevenson whose goal is to promote criminal justice reform and support marginalized communities. As part of their work they release reports to educate and inform the American public about the history of race in the U.S. 

As you read you will be documenting the claims or arguments the report makes about Reconstruction and the evidence they cite to support those claims. Basically, you are reading someone else’s history essay and creating an outline of their response. 

Activity

Choose at least three topics (each title listed underneath the chapters is a topic) to read within the report. Use the template below to create your "outline."

Journey to Freedom: Emancipation and Citizenship

• Inequality After Enslavement
• Emancipation by Proclamation - Then by Law

Freedom to Fear: A Terrifying and Deadly Backlash

• Black Political Mobilization and White Backlash
• Fighting for Education
• Resisting Economic Exploitation

Documenting Reconstruction Violence: Known and Unknown Horrors

• 34 Documented Mass Lynchings During the Reconstruction Era
• Racial Terror and Reconstruction: A State Snapshot

The Danger of Freedom

• Political Violence
• Economic Intimidation
• Enforcing the Racial Social Order
• Organized Terror and Community Massacres
• Accusations of Crime
• Arbitrary and Random Violence



Reconstruction’s End

• Reconstruction vs. Southern Redemption
• Judicial and Political Abandonment
• Redemption Wins
• A Vanishing Hope



A Truth That Needs Telling

Extensions/More Research

There are a lot of great opportunities to learn more about Reconstruction. Here are more materials to explore!

Land

• Listen to “The Land of Our Fathers pt. 1” (1619 podcast)
• Read “Sharecropping: Slavery Rerouted” by Jared Tetreau (PBS American Experience)

Health

• Read “A Broken Health Care System” by Jeneen Interlandi (1619 Project p. 44-45)
• Read “Freedmen Demand Equal Medical Treatment” by the Zinn Education Project

Education

• Watch “African American Higher Education” with Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Black History in Two Minutes)
• Read “The Freedmen’s Bureau” by Equal Justice Initiative