This letter has been signed by more than 200 scholars of U.S. history. It can be presented to school districts by teachers, scholars, parents, students, and other concerned community members. We will post the names of school districts that resolve to take action.
We, the undersigned scholars of U.S. history, urge school districts to devote more time and resources to the teaching of the Reconstruction era in upper elementary, middle, and high school U.S. history and civics courses.
Reconstruction is full of stories that can help us see the possibility of a future defined by racial equity. However, too often the story of this grand experiment in interracial democracy is skipped or rushed through in curricula and classrooms. And in the scant coverage it receives, the possibilities and achievements of this era are overshadowed and the violent white supremacist backlash is placed in isolation and on center stage.
It is for these reasons that we ask school district administrators, principals, school boards, curriculum coordinators, teachers, and teacher unions to resolve to take action. Here are a few examples of ways that school districts can ensure that students learn from the history of the Reconstruction era:
- Assess how much time is currently devoted to the Reconstruction Era in your school district and make a plan to increase it.
- Critically review the narrative in the district’s textbooks and curricula about Reconstruction to determine if it focuses on the famous leaders and backlash or if it also highlights the bottom-up history and the era’s social and political successes. Make a plan to shift to more of the grassroots history.
- Increase district support and resources for teaching the Reconstruction Era in U.S. history and in social studies with professional development, books, films, and funds for field experiences.
- Expand the time devoted to the Reconstruction Era and the Reconstruction Amendments in the social studies, and not just at the high school level.
There are free resources available to schools to teach about Reconstruction from the Zinn Education Project, Facing History and Ourselves, the National Park Service, PBS, and more. Let us know what actions you take so that we can publicly acknowledge your school district’s commitment.
Sincerely,
- Catherine Adams, Claflin University
- Nicholas J. Aieta, Westfield State University
- Shawn Leigh Alexander, University of Kansas
- Abdul Alkalimat, University of Illinois
- Derrick P. Alridge, University of Virginia
- Carol Anderson, Emory University
- Thomas Andrews, University of Colorado Boulder
- Christian G. Appy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Chris Myers Asch, Colby College
- Curtis Austin, Arizona State University
- Joseph Bagley, Georgia State University
- Bruce E. Baker, Newcastle University
- Davarian L. Baldwin, Trinity College
- Jared Ball, author
- Simon Balto, The University of Iowa
- David Barber, University of Tennessee at Martin
- Alice L. Baumgartner, University of Southern California
- Kabria Baumgartner, University of New Hampshire
- Mario Beatty, Howard University
- Justin Behrend, SUNY Geneseo
- Kathleen Belew, Northwestern University
- Richard Benson, University of Pittsburgh
- Dan Berger, University of Washington, Bothell
- Iver Bernstein, Washington University in St. Louis
- Stephen A. Berrey, University of Michigan
- Tithi Bhattacharya, Purdue University
- Derek W. Black, University of South Carolina
- Richard Blackett, Vanderbilt University, Emeritus
- Keisha N. Blain, University of Pittsburgh
- William A. Blair, Penn State, Emeritus
- Eladio Bobadilla, University of Pittsburgh
- Christopher Bonner, University of Maryland, College Park
- Taylor Branch, author
- Allyson Brantley, University of La Verne
- Brandi Brimmer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Nancy K. Bristow, University of Puget Sound
- Joshua Brown, City University of New York, Emeritus
- David Busch, Case Western Reserve University
- Say Burgin, Dickinson College
- Orville Vernon Burton, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Michael Butler, Flagler College
- Kia Lilly Caldwell, UNC-Chapel Hill
- Greg Carr, Howard University
- Jim Casey, Princeton University
- Daphne R. Chamberlain, Tougaloo College
- Marcia Chatelain, Georgetown University
- Christy Clark-Pujara, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Robert Cohen, NYU Steinhardt
- Peter Cole, Western Illinois University
- Christy S. Coleman, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
- Dierdre Cooper Owens, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Matthew Countryman, University of Michigan
- Karen L. Cox, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
- Emilye Crosby, SUNY Geneseo
- Diana D’Amico Pawlewicz, University of North Dakota
- Robert Dannin, independent scholar
- Joshua Davis, University of Baltimore
- Kelley Fanto Deetz, University of California, Berkeley
- Catherine J. Denial, Knox College
- Michael Dennis, Acadia University
- Ajamu A. Dillahunt, Michigan State University, PhD Student
- Rebecca Dixon, Tennessee State University
- L. Mara Dodge, Westfield State University
- Adam H Domby, Auburn University
- Gregory P. Downs, University of California, Davis
- Jim Downs, Gettysburg College
- Kim Dulaney, Chicago State University
- Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Rutgers University
- Natanya Duncan, Queens College City University of New York
- Peter Dreier, Occidental College
- Taulby H. Edmondson, Virginia Tech
- Ansley T. Erickson, Teachers College, Columbia University
- Ashley Farmer, University of Texas-Austin
- Andrew Feffer, Union College
- Crystal N. Feimster, Yale University
- Johanna Fernandez, Baruch College, CUNY
- Eileen Findlay, American University
- Jerise Fogel, Montclair State University
- Eric Foner, Columbia University, Emeritus
- P. Gabrielle Foreman, Penn State University
- Robert Forrant, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
- Catherine Fosl, University of Louisville
- Signe Fourmy, University of Texas at Austin
- Nishani Frazier, North Carolina State University
- Laura E. Free, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
- David M. P. Freund, University of Maryland, College Park
- Shannon Frystak, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania
- Kevin Gannon, Grand View University
- Irene Gendzier, Boston University, Emeritus
- Judith Giesberg, Villanova University
- Lawrence Goldstone, independent scholar
- Van E. Gosse, Franklin & Marshall
- Francis Gourrier, Kenyon College
- Frank Andre Guridy, Columbia University
- Hannah Gurman, New York University
- Walter D. Greason, Macalester College
- Hilary N. Green, Davidson College
- Caroline Grego, independent scholar
- Tona Hangen, Worcester State University
- Steven Hahn, New York University
- Jon N. Hale, University of South Carolina
- Dennis Patrick Halpin, Virginia Tech
-
Rachel E. Harding, University of Colorado, Veterans of Hope Project
- Claudrena N. Harold, University of Virginia
- LaShawn D. Harris, Michigan State University
- Leslie M. Harris, Northwestern University
- Wesley Hogan, Duke University
- Woody Holton, University of South Carolina
- Natalie Hopkinson, Howard University
- Gerald Horne, University of Houston
- William Horne, Villanova University
- Tera W. Hunter, Princeton University
- Karl Jacoby, Columbia University
- Kellie Carter Jackson, Wellesley College
- Lawrence Jackson, Johns Hopkins University
- Ramon Jackson, South Carolina Department of Archives and History
- Hasan Kwame Jeffries, The Ohio State University
- Gaye Theresa Johnson, University of California at Los Angeles
- Ida E. Jones, Morgan State
- Jonathan S. Jones, Virginia Military Institute
- Martha Suzanne Jones, Johns Hopkins University
- Peniel E. Joseph, University of Texas at Austin
- Nick Juravich, University of Massachusetts, Boston
- Aaron Katz, University of Washington, Seattle
- Judith S. Kaufman, Hofstra University
- Julie Keiffer-Lewis, De Anza College
- Robin D. G. Kelley, UCLA
- Ibram X. Kendi, Boston University
- Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie, Howard University
- Barclay T. Key, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
- Kwasi Konadu, Colgate University
- J. Morgan Kousser, Caltech
- Dale Kretz, independent scholar
- Chenjerai Kumanyika, New York University
- Peter Kuznick, American University
- Louis M. Kyriakoudes, Middle Tennessee State University
- Adam Laats, Binghamton University (SUNY)
- Stephanie M. Lampkin, Jane and Littleton Mitchell Center for African American Heritage
- Ashleigh Lawrence, University of Colorado Boulder
- Talitha LeFlouria, University of Virginia
- Adriane Lentz-Smith, Duke University
- Elizabeth D. Leonard, Colby College, Emeritus
- Kevin Levin, independent scholar
- Alex Lichtenstein, Indiana University Bloomington
- Jeffrey L. Littlejohn, Sam Houston State University
- Samuel Livingston, Morehouse College
- Gretchen Long, Williams College
- James W. Loewen, Catholic University of America (In memoriam.)
- Robert Luckett, Jackson State University
- Clarence Lusane, Howard University
- Nancy MacLean, Duke University
- Norman Markowitz, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
- Bayley J. Marquez, University of Maryland, College Park
- Lindsay Stallones Marshall, Illinois State University
- Christopher Martell, University of Massachusetts Boston
- Kate Masur, Northwestern University
- Timothy Patrick McCarthy, Harvard University
- Jillean McCommons, University of Kentucky, PhD Student
- Austin McCoy, West Virginia University
- W. Caleb McDaniel, Rice University
- Erik S. McDuffie, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Charles McKinney, Rhodes College
- Keri Leigh Merritt, independent scholar
- Nancy Raquel Mirabal, University of Maryland, College Park
- Carl Mirra, Adelphi University
- Brian Mitchell, Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Head of Research
- Koritha Mitchell, The Ohio State University
- Aldon Morris, American Sociological Association
- Brent Morris, Clemson University
- Guy Emerson Mount, Wake Forest University
- William Mountz, Missouri Southern State University
- Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Harvard Kennedy School
- G. Derek Musgrove, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
- Megan Kate Nelson, historian and writer, Lincoln, Massachusetts
- Scott Reynolds Nelson, University of Georgia
- Jeremy Nesoff, Facing History and Ourselves
- Marcus P. Nevius, University of Rhode Island
- Cassandra L. Newby-Alexander, Norfolk State University
- Rebecca R. Noel, Plymouth State University
- Jody Noll, Georgia State University
- Arlisha R. Norwood, Baruch College
- Margo Okazawa-Rey, San Francisco State University, Emeritus
- Paul Ortiz, University of Florida
- Tyler D. Parry, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- Charles M. Payne, Rutgers University Newark
- Jeffrey B. Perry, independent scholar
- Charles Postel, San Francisco State University
- Margaret Power, Illinois Institute of Technology
- Bradley Proctor, The Evergreen State College
- Benjamin Railton, Fitchburg State University
- Ray Raphael, Journal of the American Revolution
- Josiah Rector, University of Houston
- Marcus Rediker, University of Pittsburgh
- Rachel B. Reinhard, UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project
- J. T. Roane, Arizona State University
- Alaina E. Roberts, University of Pittsburgh
- Ian Rocksborough-Smith, University of the Fraser Valley
- Dylan Rodríguez, University of California, Riverside
- David Roediger, University of Kansas
- Hannah Rosen, William & Mary
- Adam Rothman, Georgetown University
- Joshua D. Rothman, University of Alabama
- Mark Charles Roudané, independent scholar
- Leslie Rowland, University of Maryland
- Calvin Schermerhorn, Arizona State University
- Jack Schneider, University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Debra Schultz, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY
- Kathryn Schumaker, University of Oklahoma
- Leslie A. Schwalm, University of Iowa
- Campbell F. Scribner, University of Maryland, College Park
- David Silkenat, University of Edinburgh
- Bryant Simon, Temple University
- Alan Singer, Hofstra University
- Manisha Sinha, University of Connecticut
- Clint Smith, New America
- J. Douglas Smith, independent scholar
- Robyn C. Spencer, Lehman College, CUNY
- Bryan Stevenson, Equal Justice Initiative
- William Sturkey, University of Pennsylvania
- James L. Swarts, SUNY Geneseo, Emeritus
- Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Princeton University
- Quintard Taylor, University of Washington, Emeritus
- Jeanne Theoharis, Brooklyn College
- Heather Ann Thompson, University of Michigan
- Sheneese Thompson, Bowie State University
- Akinyele Umoja, Georgia State University
- Shannon Vance, East Carolina University
- Michael Vorenberg, Brown University
- Michael Wade, App
alachian State University - Kevin Waite, Durham University
- Corey D. B. Walker, University of Richmond
- Peter Wallenstein, Virginia Tech
- Valethia Watkins, Howard University
- Jill Watts, California State University San Marcos
- Stephen A. West, Catholic University of America
- Laura Wexler, Yale University
- Craig Steven Wilder, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Isabel Wilkerson, author
- Chad Williams, Brandeis University
- David Williams, Valdosta State University, Emeritus
- Kidada E. Williams, Wayne State University
- Learotha Williams Jr., Tennessee State University
- Mason B. Williams, Williams College
- Naomi R Williams, Rutgers University
- Shannen Dee Williams, Villanova University
- Yohuru Williams, University of St. Thomas, Minnesota
- Nan Elizabeth Woodruff, Pennsylvania State University
- Joshua K. Wright, Trinity Washington University
- Donald Yacovone, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University
- Thomas Zimmer, Georgetown University
Organizations listed for identification purposes only.
Scholars of U.S. history: To add your name to the list of signers, write to zep@zinnedproject.org
Learn more in the Zinn Education Project national report, “Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction,” and find teaching resources on Reconstruction below.
A must for all Americans. One will never truly understand American history without understanding and demythologizing this profound glorious betrayal in the first attempt at a multiracial democracy in America. The lost cause myth, white supremacy and the vicious legacy of slavery can only be put in context with this dark and tragic moment in our history.
The lack of academic interests in teaching this important sector of American history is indeed a travesty in our educational system. It always breaks my heart when my college students say to me “I did not know this” while at the same time I encounter other students in different parts of the world who are knowledgeable of this dark side of American history. The fault lies in all the structures of our society that subconsciously seeks to omit this chapter and I think it is because it is not just a history but a history that still lingers in and permeates the present.
There is no more critical period in American history than what actually happened after the Civil War.
Lies My Teacher Told Me, is still a great read to me. I read this in college, and was blown away. I wish I would have applied myself in high school….I was a lazy high school student, but this type of curriculum would have engaged me.
I was taught the false myth of the lost Cause throughout my years as a high school, in Fairfield, CT and as a college student, at Williams College. I began my teaching career teaching those lies in the 1990s, until I read James Loewen, Howard Zinn and John Hope Franklin. My eyes became open wider as I saw the fraudulent white supremacist mythology inside my 2002 A History of the United States by Daniel Boorstin, and I began to openly resist and research through newer scholars like Eric Foner, David Blight, and Ta’Nahesi Coates. Once I found that the trail of lies revolved about glorifying a false Confederate ‘honored dead’ and vilifying Reconstructionist Republicans and Freed African American leaders, in order to reverse history back to a pre-1860 subjugation, I understood that unless Reconstruction is taught correctly, we will continue to breed generations of white nationalists who believe that they are on the correct side of history. Civil Rights cannot progress until new generations of Americans learn the truth about the war for the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments that started with the assassination of Lincoln and continue to present day.
In our teacher education program, for the elementary social studies method/pedagogy course, my colleagues and I choose as the major textbook Dr. James Loewen’s book, “Teaching What Really Happened – How to Avoid the Tyranny of Textbooks and Get Students Excited about Doing History”, and supplement it with a few selected chapters from Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” – Chapter 1 to encourage students to learn about the Columbian Expeditions from multiple perspectives so that students viewed the historical event from ignored and unrepresented indigenous perspective and the perspective of enslaved Africans; Chapter 2 to learn about the racist beginning of the British colonies in North America when slavery was legalized as an economic system and then a social-cultural norm; Chapter 6 to learn about white and black women living under gender and racial oppression, and question why it took so long for women to win their right to vote; Chapter 17 to learn about the “unheard” stories about the Civil Rights Movement and understand why police was not there to protect African American protestors and demonstrators. Teacher candidates use articles/lessons published in recent “Social Studies and the Young Learners” to learn about the Inquiry Arc and use it to devise lessons for upper elementary grades. Thank you for all the meaningful lesson ideas you have been sharing on your website.
Nothing is more important than our students understanding that we continue to live in an “unfinished revolution.” Leaving out Reconstruction, or diminishing it, distorts US history in the most fundamental way.