Oct. 19, 1870: First African Americans Elected to the House of Representatives

Lesson. By Bill Bigelow. 17 pages.
This role play engages students in thinking about what freedpeople needed in order to achieve — and sustain — real freedom following the Civil War. It’s followed by a chapter from the book Freedom’s Unfinished Revolution.

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez and Nqobile Mthethwa. 25 pages.
A mixer role play explores the connections between different social movements during Reconstruction.

Teaching Guide. By American Social History Project with foreword by Eric Foner. 1996.
Primary documents, essays, and questions to teach the untold story of Reconstruction.

Article. By Adam Sanchez. If We Knew Our History series.

Reconstruction, the era immediately following the Civil War and emancipation, is full of stories that help us see the possibility of a future defined by racial equity. Though often overlooked in classrooms across the country, Reconstruction was a period where the impossible suddenly became possible.

From the urban rebellions to the salute at the Olympics, commemorations of 1968 — a pivotal year of Black Power — are popular every year. Yet there is another anniversary of Black Power that merits our attention — 1868 during Reconstruction.

Book — Non-fiction. By W. E. B. Du Bois. Edited by Eric Foner and Henry Louis Gates. 2021. 1097 pages.
Originally published in 1935, Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction was the first book to challenge the prevailing racist historical narrative of the era and in sharp, incisive prose, tell the story of the Civil War and Reconstruction from the perspective of African Americans.

Article. By James W. Loewen. 2015.
Overview of five common fallacies that Americans still tell themselves about the Reconstruction era.

Hiram Revels was sworn into office as senator from Mississippi, becoming the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Joseph H. Rainey, from South Carolina, was the first African American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution officially ended the institution of slavery.

African Americans in Richmond, Virginia organized protests against segregated streetcars.

The Georgia Constitutional Convention was held with 33 African Americans and 137 white attendees.

Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African American to be elected to serve in the U.S. Senate.

President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the third of the Enforcement Acts, a Reconstruction-era bill that empowered the federal government to intervene when the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments are violated.

A meeting was held in New York of abolitionists to address the injustice of continued slavery in Cuba.

The Ku Klux Klan carried out the Colfax Massacre in response to a Republican victory in the 1872 elections.

Rep. Robert B. Elliott gave a speech to advocate for the Civil Rights Act, which passed a year later.