With the passing of Memorial Day, created to honor the Civil War‘s dead, we end the multitude of tributes marking the conflict’s 150th anniversary.
But few Americans have a clear understanding of the period after the war — Reconstruction — when of some of our most important rights were established, before some of our most hateful and destructive traditions took root and undermined them.
As Americans deal with some of the same racial issues that tore apart the nation then, how should we commemorate Reconstruction and what can be done to create a public memory of it?
Responses:
A Role for National Parks
Gregory P. Downs, author, "After Appomattox" and Kate Masur, author, "An Example for All the Land"
Account for the Pillaging of African-American Freedom
Kidada E. Williams, author, "They Left Great Marks on Me"
The Best Memorial: a Functional Voting Rights Act
Jamelle Bouie, Slate magazine
Preserve What Happened in Mitchelville, S.C.
Thavolia Glymph, Duke University
Honor Emancipation by Celebrating Juneteenth
Emily Blanck, author, "Tyrannicide"
Pay Tribute to the Black Women Who Spoke Out
Allyson Hobbs, author, "A Chosen Exile"
The Successes and Failures of Reconstruction
Eric Foner, author, "The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery"