Reconstruction: Past & Present

“Alone among the societies that abolished slavery in the nineteenth century, the United States, for a moment, offered the freedmen a measure of political control over their own destinies. However brief its sway, Reconstruction allowed scope for a remarkable political and social mobilization of the black community.” - Eric Foner, 1983.

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past." - William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun, 1951.

“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line — the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea." - W.E.B. Du Bois, 1903.

As Foner suggests, the period of Reconstruction, not limited to the older interpretation of 1865-1877 but extending into the 1890s, offered a chance for a fundamental socio-economic revolution in the United States. And much did change: public school systems were established in the South and the antebellum ruling class of the region saw its wealth fall dramatically. The foundations of the institutions that were in later decades to become the sources of African-American political and social power were laid. Finally, the 14th and 15th Amendments were added to the existing Constitution, and both remain politically contested terrain in the 21st century. But property – beyond that “in man” – was not redistributed. The hoped-for revolution came up short. What happened? Was there a chance of a different path? And what insights can we as socialists draw from this incomplete revolution that might have relevance in today’s struggles for freedom and justice?

Panelists include Dr. Manisha Sinha and Dr. Gerald Horne.

Dr. Sinha is the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut and the President-elect 2024 of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. Her forthcoming book is The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920 (New York: Liveright, 2024).

Dr. Horne holds the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies. His research has addressed issues of racism in a variety of relations involving labor, politics, civil rights, international relations, and war. His books include The Counter-Revolution of 1836: Texas Slavery, Jim Crow and the Roots of U.S. Fascism (New York: International, 2022).