Resources

Student Resources:

• Reconstruction Interactive Timeline
• End of Reconstruction Handout
• Device with internet capabilities

Engage

• Display the engraving.
  • Waud, Alfred R., Artist. The Freedmen’s Bureau, 1868. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/92514996/.
• Ask students to describe what they see.
  • If students need guidance, ask:
    • What do you notice about the composition of the image? (e.g., the crowd, expressions, interactions, central figure)
    • Who do you think the people are? What roles might they represent?
    • What emotions or conflicts are depicted?
• Ask students to evaluate the role of government agencies, such as the Freedmen’s Bureau, in addressing social and racial inequality based on the figure in the middle.
• Tell students this was a drawing in the magazine Harper’s Weekly in 1868 that captures the tensions between freedmen in the South and opposition they faced during Reconstruction.
• Say to students “Today we are going to look at several events that led to the end of Reconstruction, many of which reflect the tension shown in this image.”

Explore

Independent Timeline Investigation

• Access the timeline focusing attention on the following four entries:
  • The Ku Klux Klan Founded
  • Enforcement Acts
  • Rutherford B. Hayes Elected
  • The Withdraw from Louisiana
• Instruct students to read the descriptions and investigate the other buttons, such as images and primary sources on the interactive timeline.

End of Reconstruction Justification Group Activity

• Divide the class into four groups. Assign each group one end of Reconstruction entries from the timeline.
• Tell each group it is now their job to prove to the other groups their entry was the most significant to bringing about an end to Reconstruction.
• Groups will work together to complete the End of Reconstruction handout. Instruct them to identify two effects of their cause. They can use the internet to research more support.

Scaffolding note: After groups have come up with their two effects, have them share with the class.

• Then, groups complete the next sections of their group worksheet.
• Have groups share out before their assessment.

Assess & Reflect

1. Reflection Questions:

• Have students answer these reflection questions for the four entries reviewed on the timeline.
  • How did the Ku Klux Klan represent deep resentment of the Civil War and Thirteenth Amendment among whites in the south?
  • How did the Enforcement Acts and subsequent Supreme Court cases show the push and pull of white southern power in the years after the civil war?
  • What can this contentious presidential election teach us today?
  • What evidence exists to suggest Reconstruction was coming to an end regardless of the “Compromise of 1877”?

AND/OR

1. Thesis Development

• Ask students to develop a thesis statement responding to the prompt, “Which event was the most significant in ending Reconstruction?” After hearing the arguments from all four groups, they now can decide which they believe would be best to use for their thesis and to establish a line of reasoning.