Gery Gerst

Without Reconstruction, and the century long struggle that followed over the 14th Amendment, the story of the Civil War is hollow.

1865 is but the end of battle, and the military victory of the North. . . but Reconstruction is about the CULTURE war that followed for over a century and whose legacy still confronts us.

Without that study, none of us can understand the Civil Rights Movement, the statues controversy, redlining, Tulsa 1921, etc. Without that narrative, we can’t understand and appreciate Hiram Revels, the KKK, Ida B. Wells, or the Diaspora. It’s like getting one-third of the way through a book then dumping it.

The story wasn’t over in 1865 . . . so the history lessons shouldn’t be either.