Category: African Americans Emancipation & Reconstruction
4th of July: An African American Holiday During Reconstruction
One myth I have heard a lot about was that the City of Vicksburg in Mississippi stopped celebrating the Fourth of July during the Civil…
NY Times Podcast on the History and Meaning of Juneteenth
The New York Times has an interesting interview with Dr. Daina Ramey Berry, a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, on…
National Archive Finds An Original Juneteenth Proclamation!
An original handwritten version of the June 19, 1865 Juneteenth proclamation appears to have been found in the National Archive on June 18, 2020. According…
NY Times Publishes Special Section on Juneteenth
The New York Times has a whole suite of materials today celebrating Juneteenth. One article is an interview with 93 year old Opal Lee, the…
The Spread of “Juneteenth” in Reconstruction Era Texas
Juneteenth was not called “Juneteenth” the first time it was celebrated. It was called “Emancipation Day” or “Jubilee Day” in most early accounts. And while…
New Report Says 2,000 Blacks Lynched During Reconstruction Era
A new report from the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) says that from the end of the Civil War in 1865 until the traditional close of…
In 1863 When a Black Man Refused to be Whipped Was He a Murderer if He Killed His Enslaver?
Here is an incident that I read about recently set during the early period of Reconstruction while the Civil War was still raging. I found…
May 1865: African American Community in New Orleans Celebrates the First Anniversary of Its School for Black Children
The celebration of a year of learning by the emancipated Black children of New Orleans. Reconstruction began in New Orleans three years earlier than in…
White Immigrants Needed to Replace the Dying Black Race Alabama January 1869
After Emancipation, one of the continuing dreams of many white Southerners was that the “Black race” would die out or be exterminated. In this editorial,…
Indiana Dems Explain Their Principled Opposition to 15th Amendment: “the government was formed for white men” March 1869
At the end of February 1869 the 15th Amendment giving equal voting rights to Black men was passed by Congress and sent to the states…
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