Reconstruction, and Intended to Scare the White Population
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Facing History and Ourselves is an international educational and professional development organization whose mission is to engage students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry. By studying the historical development of the Holocaust and other examples of genocide, students make the essential connection between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives. For more information about Facing History and Ourselves, please visit our website at www.facinghistory.org. Copyright © 2015 by Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved. Facing History and Ourselves® is a trademark registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. The photograph used in the background of our front cover depicts the African American and Radical Republican members of the South Carolina legislature in the 1870s. South Carolina had the first state legislature with a black majority. This photo was created by opponents of Radical Reconstruction, and intended to scare the white population. See Lesson 8, “Interracial Democracy” for suggestions about how to use this image in the classroom. Photo credit: Library of Congress (1876). ISBN: 978-1-940457-10-9 Acknowledgments Primary writer: Daniel Sigward This publication was made possible by the support of the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation. Developing this guide was a collaborative effort that required the input and expertise of a variety of people. Many Facing History and Ourselves staff members made invaluable contributions. The guidance of Adam Strom was essential from start to finish. Jeremy Nesoff played a critical role through his partnership with Dan Sigward and, along with Denny Conklin and Jocelyn Stanton, helped to shape the curriculum by providing feedback on numerous drafts. Margot Stern Strom, Marc Skvirsky, and Marty Sleeper served as a thoughtful editorial team. Anika Bachhuber, Brooke Harvey, and Samantha Landry kept the writing and production process moving forward. Catherine O’Keefe and Ariel Perry attended to countless details and transformed the manuscript into this beautiful and polished publication. Erin Kernen carefully managed to secure all license contracts. Rob Tokanel, Alexia Prichard, Wilkie Cook, and Liz Kelleher creatively adapted and extended this resource as they developed the companion videos and website. We also benefited greatly from the experience and advice of the ninth-grade history teachers in the Boston Public Schools—under the leadership of Robert Chisholm and James Liou—who piloted two versions of this curriculum in successive years. Additional feedback from Facing History staff members and teachers who conducted pilots in Cleveland, Memphis, Denver, and San Francisco helped us fine-tune the curriculum before final publication. Finally, we are grateful to have received guidance and feedback from distinguished historians and experts in history education. We owe special thanks to Eric Foner, Chad Williams, Steven Cohen, Chandra Manning, and Heather Cox Richardson. AcknowledGments iii Table of Contents Acknowledgments ........................................................... iii Introduction: The Fragility of Democracy ....................................vii Teaching This Unit.......................................................... viii Addressing Dehumanizing Language from History ......................... xiv Section 1 • The Individual and Society . 1 LESSON 1 The Power of Names ............................................... 2 Introducing the Writing Prompts ............................................ 15 Section 2 • We and They . 19 LESSON 2 Differences That Matter .......................................... 20 LESSON 3 Defining Freedom ................................................ 35 CLOSE READING A: Letter from Jourdon Anderson: A Freedman Writes His Former Master . 49 Connecting to the Writing Prompt ........................................... 57 Section 3 • Healing and Justice After War . 59 LESSON 4 The Devastation of War ........................................... 60 CLOSE READING B: Speech by President Lincoln: Second Inaugural Address . 72 LESSON 5 Healing and Justice .............................................. 84 LESSON 6 The Union as It Was .............................................. 97 Connecting to the Writing Prompt .......................................... 110 Section 4 • Radical Reconstruction and Interracial Democracy . 111 LESSON 7 Radical Reconstruction and the Birth of Civil Rights ................ 112 LESSON 8 Interracial Democracy ........................................... 125 LESSON 9 Equality for All? ................................................ 140 CLOSE READING C: Speech by Susan B. Anthony: Is It a Crime for Women to Vote? . 154 Connecting to the Writing Prompt .......................................... 166 Section 5 • Backlash and the Fragility of Democracy . .167 LESSON 10 Backlash and the Ku Klux Klan .................................. 168 LESSON 11 Shifting Public Opinion ........................................ 185 LESSON 12 Reflections of Race in Nineteenth-Century Media ................. 197 Connecting to the Writing Prompt .......................................... 207 LESSON 13 Violence, Race, and “Redemption” ............................... 208 CLOSE READING D: Speech by Senator Charles Hays Reaffirming the Rights of African Americans . 243 LESSON 14 The Coming of Segregation ..................................... 255 Connecting to the Writing Prompt .......................................... 262 TABLE OF CONTENTS v Section 6 • Memory and Legacy . 263 LESSON 15 The Power of Myth and the Purpose of History ................... 264 CLOSE READING E: Excerpt from “The Propaganda of History” by W. E. B. Du Bois . 274 LESSON 16 The Unfinished Revolution ..................................... 286 Connecting to the Writing Prompt .......................................... 297 Appendix . 299 Fostering a Reflective Classroom ............................................ 300 Journals in a Facing History Classroom ...................................... 302 vi Table of Contents INTRODUCTION The Fragility of Democracy by Marty Sleeper, Associate Executive Director, Facing History and Ourselves In Facing History and Ourselves classrooms, students learn that democracy, among the most fragile of human enterprises, is always a work in progress and can only remain vital through the active, thoughtful, and responsible participation of its citizens. Its ideals of freedom, equality, and justice require constant vigilance and sustenance. Those moments in history when these ideals were assaulted and democracy was put at risk, if not destroyed, need close and rigorous examination in the school curriculum. This unit provides teachers and students with opportunities to look closely at one such moment in American history: the era of Reconstruction after the Civil War. The core Facing History resource, Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior, explores the failure of democracy in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, when such institutions as law, education, and civil legislation collapsed in the face of deep-seated prejudice, hatred, and violence. While Facing History rejects simple comparisons in history, the parallels between the Weimar Republic in Germany and the Reconstruction era in America are striking in their illumination of the fragility of democracy as both a means of governance and a set of societal ideals. The question of how a society heals and rebuilds after extraordinary division and trauma, when the ideals and values of democracy may be most vulnerable, can be explored in histories addressed by other Facing History resources as well, such as the history of South Africa after apartheid, the struggles in Cambodia, Bosnia, or Rwanda after genocides, and the writing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights after World War II. But this unit on Reconstruction in America reveals how memory and history are themselves vulnerable and can be used by leaders in later generations to unleash racial hatred, justify discrimination, and deny liberty and equality to racial or religious minorities. New scholarship and perspectives on the past must constantly be brought to bear on how we understand the present. Examining the era of Reconstruction is a prime example. Few would deny that this history has been poorly and insufficiently taught. Its dilemmas deserve the close and rigorous attention that this unit offers. Moreover, themes of identity, membership, individual and group choice, responsibility, and denial—all components of human behavior that Facing History uses as a conceptual framework and vocabulary to help students enter into the past—permeate the era of Reconstruction, and their elaboration in this unit will assist students in understanding Reconstruction’s legacy today. Exploring this history in all its complexity offers young people a critical opportunity to exercise their capacity for emotional growth and ethical judgment as they connect its lessons to the issues and the choices faced in their own world and the world of the future. INTRODUCTION vii Teaching This Unit This curriculum is designed to guide you and your students through a Facing History and Ourselves unit about the Reconstruction era of American history. In this unit, students will investigate the challenges of creating a just democracy in a time of deep division. The resources included