New Resource on Reconstruction Era Ku Klux Klan from Gilder-Lehrman Institute
The Gilder-Lehrman Institute has a new essay describing the rise and fall of the Reconstruction Era Ku Klux Klan. Elaine S. Frantz of Kent State…
What Klansmen Ate in 1868
The Memphis Avalanche was one of the most pro-KKK newspapers in the country. This article from the Avalanche is poking fun at African Americans and…
Three Million Have Seen “Harriet”-Here Are Biographies to Learn the Fuller Story
The film “Harriet,” about the life of Harriet Tubman, has been out for three weeks and over three million people have seen it in the…
After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War by Gregory Downs
After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War by Gregory Downs published by Harvard University Press (2015) Hardcover $32.95 Kindle $18.12. Before the 1960s, it…
Were the Ku Klux Ghosts of Confederate Soldiers? Mississippi 1868
This article announces the arrival of the KKK in Grenada, Miss. through the mockery of a black preacher. In the article “Uncle Ike” (older African…
Podcast: Why “Song of the South” Was More of a Success in the 1970s than the 1940s
The podcast Six Degrees of Song of the South looks at why a film that was only a moderate success when it first came out…
The KKK “Works Upon the Fears of the Colored People” NY Times Feb. 1868
The New York Times only first reported on the Klan in January 1868, but it soon became a regular topic of coverage. This article in…
When I Use the Word “Conservative” to Describe Some Opponents of Reconstruction, Am I Being “Anachronistic”?
When I write about the movement to block Reconstruction, I sometimes refer to Reconstruction’s opponents as “conservatives.” I have received a steady stream of criticism…
“Dear Harriet…Your Friend Frederick Douglass” A Letter to Harriet Tubman 1868
In 1868, friends of Harriet Tubman raised money to aid the former slave in keeping her home in Auburn, N.Y. Frederick Douglass, who lived in…
“A Lodge of That Famous Klan Will Soon Be Formed In Every Village” Tenn. March, 1868
As the Ku Klux Klan garnered national headlines for its terrorism in 1868, many white-owned Southern newspapers took the side of the Klan. They were…