The white southern backlash started right after the war and never let up. In 18 65 and 66, most of the southern state legislatures passed black codes. Benjamin franklin randolph was a free black man who had been a school principal in buffalo, new york when he volunteered to serve the union army. It is he who helps to push forward the policies about education. And it is he who is killed while travelling and campaigning in a place near abenville, south carolina.
After the Civil War, a surprising coalition tried to remake the United States into a real multiracial democracy for the first time. Reconstruction, as the effort was called, brought dramatic change to America. For a while.
Reported and produced by John Biewen, with series collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika. The series script editor is Loretta Williams. Interviews with Victoria Smalls, Brent Morris, Eric Foner, Kidada Williams, Bobby Donaldson, and Edward Baptist.
Music by Algiers, John Erik Kaada, Eric Neveux, and Lucas Biewen. Music consulting and production help from Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.
Photo: Historian Bobby Donaldson of the University of South Carolina, at the South Carolina State House, Columbia, SC. Photo by John Biewen.