Terror to Overturn Reconstruction Era Advances

During and after Reconstruction, a campaign of terror was waged by white supremacists to regain or retain control of local and state governments, land, and businesses. This was designed to roll back the Reconstruction era advances made by African Americans in the areas of political leadership, schools, land ownership, voting rights, family reunification, and more. Below are just a few examples. Sadly there are countless more as evidenced by the testimonies of Klan violence that led to the Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871.

As noted in our national report, Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction: Reconstruction did not simply end, nor was it simply defeated. As African Americans sought to end racial injustice, they were met by a white supremacist backlash. Standards and curricula often mention the KKK, the Black Codes, and Jim Crow laws, but they fail to name white supremacy as the root of these attacks on Reconstruction. Reconstruction was not a “failure.” Students should learn that specific white supremacist individuals, organizations, and systems actively defeated it.

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