Today, Mary looks at an image from the Reconstruction era that challenges us to reconsider what we mean when we say “the civil rights movement.” Typically, if someone says, "Civil Rights Movement," we think of the 1950s and 1960s, but does the story go back further? Similarly, if someone mentions “the civil rights act” we think of the landmark legislation in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But this isn’t the only civil rights act to date nor is it the first. Explore the 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, and 15th Amendment (Reconstruction Amendments), the Civil Rights Act of 1875, and other primary sources surrounding the era or reconstruction and the continuous work to achieve civil rights for black Americans.

How did African Americans experience education during Reconstruction? In this episode of BRIdge from the Past, Mary explores the images of Fisk Jubilee Hall and the Fisk Jubilee Singers to understand the lengths formally enslaved individuals went in order to establish educational facilities and the resistance they faced. What do these images reveal about the African American experience during the time period? How can we use these images to understand the importance of education today?

What impact did the Reconstruction Amendments have on the application of our Founding principles? In this video, Mary and Gary explore two Reconstruction-era cartoons by Thomas Nast. “Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving Dinner" (1869) and “The Union As It Was" (1874) give insight into the nature of liberty and equality in the United States shortly after the Civil War. Do you agree with Nast’s commentary about the intentions and consequences of Reconstruction?

Reconstruction witnessed some successes in bringing equality, liberty, and justice for African Americans. Brooks D. Simpson and John C. Waugh explore the lasting impact of Reconstruction policies on American principles.

Join BRI Senior Teaching Fellow Tony Williams as he sits down with historian LeeAnna Keith, contributor to BRI’s new Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness textbook on the immense obstacles that African Americans continued to encounter during the Reconstruction era and into the twentieth century. Keith explains how African Americans suffered tragic racial violence and white supremacy during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, despite constitutional protections in the Reconstruction Amendments, the 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, and 15th Amendments. She also touches on an array of other important postwar developments, such as the segregation of African Americans under Jim Crow laws and various restrictions on black civil rights. Finally, Keith finds encouragement in the influential ideas of W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington for justice and equality and the civil rights movement of the twentieth century.

How did the odious doctrine of “separate but equal” become legally permissible in the U.S.? This Homework Help narrative explores the story of the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case. Further, analyze how the idea of “separate but equal” violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment through incorporation that was later struck down in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Case championing the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Due to the process of incorporation, the Supreme Court was able to eventually rule that the states had to adhere to the protections listed in the Bill of Rights.