History

RECONSTRUCTION: AMERICA AFTER THE CIVIL WAR

Reconstruction: America After the Civil War explores the transformative years following the American Civil War, when the nation struggled to rebuild itself in the face of profound loss, massive destruction, and revolutionary social change. The twelve years that composed the post-war Reconstruction era (1865-77) witnessed a seismic shift in the meaning and makeup of our democracy.

Reconstruction | Part 2, Hour 2

55m 28s

The turn of the century is known as the ‘nadir’ of race relations, when white supremacy was ascendant and African Americans faced both physical and psychological oppression. Racist imagery saturated popular culture and Southern propaganda manipulated the story of the Civil War and Reconstruction. But African Americans found ways to fight back, using artistic expression to put forward a “New Negro”

Episodes

  • Reconstruction | Part 2, Hour 2: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Reconstruction | Part 2, Hour 2

    S2019 E4 - 55m 28s

    The turn of the century is known as the ‘nadir’ of race relations, when white supremacy was ascendant and African Americans faced both physical and psychological oppression. Racist imagery saturated popular culture and Southern propaganda manipulated the story of the Civil War and Reconstruction. But African Americans found ways to fight back, using artistic expression to put forward a “New Negro”

  • Reconstruction | Part 2, Hour 1: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Reconstruction | Part 2, Hour 1

    S2019 E3 - 55m 53s

    Hour three of the series examines the years 1877-1896, a transitional period that saw visions of a “New South” set the stage for the rise of Jim Crow and the undermining of Reconstruction’s legal and political legacy. While some African Americans attempted to migrate, the vast majority remained in the South, where sharecropping, convict leasing, disfranchisement, and lynchings drew a “color line”.

  • Reconstruction | Part 1, Hour 2: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Reconstruction | Part 1, Hour 2

    S2019 E2 - 55m 58s

    Post-Civil War America was a new world. For African Americans living in the former Confederacy, Reconstruction was what historian W. E. B. Du Bois once described as their “brief moment in the sun.” But support for the social, economic, and political gains they achieved didn’t last long. A controversial presidential election in 1876 deals Reconstruction a grievous blow.

  • Reconstruction | Part 1, Hour 1: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Reconstruction | Part 1, Hour 1

    S2019 E1 - 55m 53s

    The aftermath of the Civil War was bewildering, exhilarating . . . and terrifying. African Americans had played a crucial role in saving the Union and now, as the country grappled with the terms and implications of Reconstruction, they struggled to breathe life into their hard-won freedom. The result was a second American Revolution.

Schedule

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