On a misty April evening in 1865, a jubilant crowd packed the White House lawn to hear President Abraham Lincoln first speech since the end of the Civil War. They expected a stirring celebration of ...

The post-Civil War Reconstruction era marked a period of massive social, political, economic, and cultural advancements for Black Americans. Between 1865 and 1877, formerly enslaved people gained ...

Call it the original "Great Escape." On May 13, 1862, just over a year into the Civil War, an enslaved man named Robert Smalls, who labored on a Confederate steamer in South Carolina's Charleston ...

Joseph is the Inaugural Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion and Joint Professor of Public Affairs & Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values and Professor of History ...

Racist imagery saturated popular culture and Southern propaganda manipulated the story. The turn of the century is known as the ‘nadir’ of race relations, when white supremacy was ascendant and ...

In recent political debates over how to teach U.S. history, the subject of slavery has loomed large. Long-documented omissions and misrepresentations in lessons have left students with incomplete ...

In the past few years, the period in American history known as Reconstruction has become increasingly prominent in the public consciousness. The dominant academic narrative is now mainstream: ...