Petition to School Boards to Teach Reconstruction

It is an essential period of US history that gives context to the period that we are now living.

Citizens of the US seem to be unaware of the reasons behind the current racial climate in our country and the systemic reasons for it. If we teach this vital time in history, from a perspective other than the white perspective that has always been taught, maybe future generations will have a better idea of how to end systemic racism.

Equal rights for all U.S. citizens were not achieved with the end of the Civil War. The coming generations need to be taught the long road of Civil Rights in the U.S. how they have been improved, fought against by some, and continue to this day.

Most students who take my U.S. and African American history courses have little or no knowledge of the Reconstruction period. They arrive at my College thinking that the nation's "racial dilemma" was resolved by the Emancipation Proclamation and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. Once they understand why Reconstruction represented a period of hope and promise, how that promise was betrayed, and that what replaced it was "slavery by another name," students gain a deeper appreciation of the sacrifices Black citizens made during the long Civil Rights Movement, the enduring manifestations of structural racism, and contemporary struggles for racial justice.

It is important to teach about the Reconstruction era because people of color were elected and passed many forward looking legislation, especially in providing free education for ALL PEOPLE AND CITIZENS. It is also needed to see that history is repeating itself through restrictions on voting in elections. Backlashes usually follow progressive forward movement. Also revisionist history is being written and it is stated that the story of the hunted would be different from the hunter's story.

TRUTH

It is important to teach about the Reconstruction era because if we don't our students/citizens are not getting the full/true history -- and truth is essential, especially in these increasingly difficult and racist times.

All Americans need to see examples of how varying groups of society can work to expand rights without it being subtractive if others' rights. My students learn of hope, vision, commitment to democracy and liberty and political empowerment when they study Reconstruction... as well the important cautionary tale of what happens when we don't keep up the fight for expanded rights for all Americans.

As a former Distinguished Visiting Prof. at Brown, a documentary filmmaker (Eyes on the Prize, etc.) and a SNCC veteran who organized in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, I know how much the events of Reconstruction impacted our nation's history. SNCC's Julian Bond and others have often called the modern Civil Rights Movement "The Second Reconstruction". I am amazed that students today continue to learn so little about this critical period in our history, or, worse, continue to be fed the same ahistorical lies about this period that I learned so many years ago in my AP history class. The story of Reconstruction is an empowering history, which can teach us so much about not just what *could have been,* but what *could still be* in this country. To teach about enslavement and omit Reconstruction denies our students (and future citizens) the kind of history they can use to build a more just nation.

In Texas the Freedmens Bureau supported the constitutional rights which the Confederacy fought to deny Americans. We learn the Lost Cause distortions, but not the truth. Texans should learn the truth.

As a college instructor of civic engagement and ethical leadership, it is imperative that we are giving our students a well-rounded view of our history, which includes teaching them about eras that provide the context for why different groups of people view the country a certain way. Teaching a well-rounded history instills trust in the teaching infrastructure of our country and ensures that those whose history was left out for generations feel included moving forward.

It is very important to teach about the Reconstruction Era, if we are going to have any reconciliation towards racial justice in this country.

The average citizen appears to believe that racial problems stem largely from the Civil Rights Era of the mid-20th Century. In fact the roots of racism in this country begin in 1619 with the initial arrival of Black Africans who had been captured in Africa and brought to the United States to be sold into slavery for the perpetuity of their lives as well as the lives of all their off-spring. Slaves in the Confederacy were granted freedom in 1862 by the Emancipation Proclamation. Freedom was later granted to all by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, the first of three Reconstruction Amendments. Reconstruction Era history gives students a complex narrative about not only the rebuilding of the UNITED STATES but also about the way in which white citizens continued to establish their privilege and supremacy over those with black and brown skin. In addition to being a history of progress, it is also a history of white terror, lynchings, the KKK and unfair imprisonment, inequitable access to jobs and promotions, inability to overcome discriminatory access to public facilities (Black Codes) and political and social institutions such as schools and health care. This is a vital narrative needed to understand the historical memory of black and brown people. In addition to presenting a balanced narrative, it is also necessary to (re)establish the freedom and justice promised by the Constitution.