40 Acres and a Mule: Role-Playing What Reconstruction Could Have Been
Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez. Rethinking Schools, 2020.
This multimedia, creative role play introduces students to the ways African American life changed immediately after the Civil War by focusing on the Sea Islands before and during Reconstruction.
Time Periods: Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876
Themes: African American, Reconstruction
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Repair: Students Design a Reparations Bill
Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. In this activity, students take on the role of activist-experts to improve upon a Congressional bill for reparations for Black people. They talk back to Congress’ flimsy legislation and design a more robust alternative.
Time Periods: 20th Century, 21st Century
Themes: African American, Criminal Justice & Incarceration, Reconstruction, Economics, Slavery and Resistance
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When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer
Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez and Nqobile Mthethwa. 25 pages.
A mixer role play explores the connections between different social movements during Reconstruction.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Civil War Era: 1850 - 1864, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery and Resistance
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Reconstructing the South: A Role Play
Teaching Activity. 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.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery and Resistance
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150th Anniversary of the 15th Amendment
Teaching materials and guides on the 15th Amendment's significance in 2020 -- its 150th anniversary and an election year.
Themes: Reconstruction, Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Racism & Racial Identity
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Freedom’s Unfinished Revolution: An Inquiry Into the Civil War and 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.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Democracy & Citizenship, Racism & Racial Identity, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
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The Reconstruction Era and the Fragility of Democracy
Teaching Guide. By Facing History and Ourselves. 2015.
A collection of lessons, videos, and primary sources to teach about Reconstruction.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity
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Teaching a People’s History of Abolition and the Civil War
Teaching Guide. Edited by Adam Sanchez. 181 pages. 2019. Rethinking Schools.
Students will discover the real abolition story, one about some of the most significant grassroots social movements in U.S. history.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Civil War Era: 1850 - 1864, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Laws & Citizen Rights, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery and Resistance
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The First Decoration Day
Article. By David W. Blight. 2011.
The people's history of Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina during Reconstruction.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Civil War Era: 1850 - 1864
Themes: Reconstruction, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
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Freedom’s Unfinished Revolution: Teaching a People’s History of Reconstruction
Background Reading for Teachers. By Bill Bigelow. 4 pages.
A review of Freedom's Unfinished Revolution, a collection of primary documents for high school on the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery and Resistance
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How My Students Brought Reconstruction to Life
Article. By Amy Trenkle.
One of the teachers who piloted the Make Reconstruction History Visible project with her students shares the process she used.
Time Periods: Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Democracy & Citizenship, Racism & Racial Identity
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Students Secure Marker for Reconstruction Era Lawyer Albion Tourgée
A group of students at Kent State University-Ashtabula helped secure local recognition for Reconstruction era lawyer and writer Albion Tourgee, including a historical marker at his birthplace.
Time Periods: Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Democracy & Citizenship
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The Black Americans: A History in Their Own Words, 1619-1983
Book - Non-fiction. Edited by Milton Meltzer. 1987.
Engaging first person stories and primary documents.
Time Periods: Civil War Era: 1850 - 1864, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876, All US History
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Labor
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Black Power U.S.A.: The Human Side of Reconstruction, 1867-1877
Book – Non-fiction. By Lerone Bennett Jr. 1967. 426 pages.
A bottom-up, student friendly text about the people's history of Reconstruction.
Time Periods: Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights
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Black Reconstruction in America
Book – Non-fiction. By W. E. B. Du Bois. Introduction by David Levering Lewis. 2014. 623 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.
Time Periods: 18th Century, 19th Century, Civil War Era: 1850 - 1864, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876, Industrial Revolution: 1877 - 1899
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Democracy & Citizenship, Racism & Racial Identity
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Cause: Reconstruction America, 1863-1877
Book – Non-fiction. By Tonya Bolden. 2014. 138 pages.
One of the few non-fiction texts on Reconstruction aimed at young readers, Cause is a strong alternative to the textbook treatment of the era.
Time Periods: Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Racism & Racial Identity
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Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow
Book - Non-fiction. By Henry Louis Gates Jr. with Tonya Bolden. 2019.
Readers trace the rise and fall of racial equity during Reconstruction as increasingly violent white supremacy and new forms of oppression take hold at the turn of the 20th century.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876, Industrial Revolution: 1877 - 1899, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Organizing
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The Era of Reconstruction, 1861-1900
Book – Non-fiction. By National Park Service. 2017. 165 pages.
A theme study on the history of the Reconstruction era.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Civil War Era: 1850 - 1864, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876, Industrial Revolution: 1877 - 1899, 20th Century
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Democracy & Citizenship, Racism & Racial Identity
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Freedom’s Shore
Book – Non-fiction. By Russell Duncan. 1986. 192 pages.
Freedom’s Shore tells the incredible story of Tunis Campbell, a Northern abolitionist minister who heads South after the Civil War to help freedpeople in Georgia.
Time Periods: Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Democracy & Citizenship, Racism & Racial Identity
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Monumental: Oscar Dunn and His Radical Fight in Reconstruction Louisiana
Book — Non-fiction. By Brian K. Mitchell, Barrington S. Edwards, and Nick Weldon. 2021.
This Reconstruction history graphic novel tells the story of Oscar James Dunn, a New Orleanian who became the first Black lieutenant governor and acting governor in the United States.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876, Industrial Revolution: 1877 - 1899
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Civil Rights Movements, Slavery and Resistance
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