Reconstruction Amendments

Eric Foner has helped us better understand the ambiguous consequences of what were almost always only partial victories.

A new three-part PBS documentary explores the failure of Reconstruction and the Redemption of the South.

The latest struggle to define America's founding charter will define the country for generations to come.

From the Framers on, Americans have understood our fundamental law to oppose ownership of persons.

The historical context of the amendments passed in the wake of the Civil War, Eric Foner argues, are widely misunderstood.

Voting has always been restricted to empower a minority.

The Constitution of 2018 is not the Constitution written by the Framers in 1787, and no one should wish otherwise.

The Colored Convention Movement, black citizenship, and the Fourteenth Amendment.

Commemoration of the 14th Amendment must not display the abundance of freedom, but the hunger for it on both sides of the border.

The fight over the 150-year old language in the Constitution is a battle for the very heart of the American republic.

The ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment marked a turning point in U.S. history. Yet 150 years later, its promises remain unfulfilled.

To make a more perfect union, don’t look to the Founding Fathers.

Americans should build this pivotal post–Civil War era into the new politics of historical memory.

The first revolution articulated American ideals. The second enacted them.

It's been a remarkable transformation over 162 years.

The movement finally gets the big, bold history it deserves.

During Reconstruction, elites used racist appeals to silence calls for redistribution and worker empowerment.

The internecine conflict and the institution of slavery could not and did not end neatly at Appomattox or on Galveston Island.

More than 150 years after Appomattox, Americans are still fighting over the great issues at the heart of the conflict.

How a post-Civil War massacre impacted racial justice in America.