The Reconstruction period reshaped race relations in the U.S. after the Civil War. A new report finds that 45 states are 'failing' to teach students about it
, historians Ana Rosado, Gideon Cohn-Postar, and Mimi Eisen evaluated state social studies standards by looking for their inclusion of noteworthy moments of the Reconstruction period. Their criteria ranged from instruction on local governments denying Black people the ability to own land to violence carried out by white supremacist terror organizations like the Ku Klux Klan.
They were looking for mentions of the Freedmen’s Bureau, formed to provide aid to the 4 million formerly enslaved people after the Civil War; for stories of Black people mobilizing for political participation and the establishment of clubs like the Union Leagues; for discussion of Northern industrialists’ power in the South and Black struggles for land ownership and labor rights.
“The message is more that the education system in this country across the country is failing to teach Reconstruction sufficiently and that everyone can do better,” says Eisen. “We’re hoping to encourage readers to advocate for more attention to Reconstruction and K-12 curriculum in the classroom.” While many states expected students to know why Reconstruction failed, the report found less of a focus on the era’s successes—or efforts to help ensure Black Americans could be full citizens. The scholars say viewing Reconstruction only by its failure is problematic.
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