The Latest Breaking News from Reconstruction

Historian David Gans on the lessons of Reconstruction, when Congress enforced reforms on a stubborn Supreme Court

"The Third Reconstruction: America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-first Century" by Peniel Joseph; Basic Books (288 pages, $27)

A case of fake history repeating itself: The American right told vicious lies about the Confederacy for decades

Kermit Roosevelt III, descendant of Theodore, sees lessons for today’s divided nation in Reconstruction and the civil rights era

After the Dobbs decision ended federal protections for abortion, some high-profile responses suggested the ruling marked the first time the Supreme Court rescinded an established fundamental right.

A few thousand activists, advocacy groups, and religious leaders protested in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. They are calling for what they say is a Third Reconstruction.

The new Juneteenth federal holiday celebrates the emancipation of enslaved people in our nation. That did not, however, emancipate Black people from the economic impact of their enslavement. Emancipation was followed by a failed Reconstruction, a century of Jim Crow, separate-but-(not)-equal, institutional racism and discrimination — the consequences of which…

All that Civil War II talk is overblown—but that isn't the only sort of political violence to worry about.

As Georgia students gathered at the Capitol last Friday to protest legislation that would govern the way race is taught in schools, an interesting email hit my inbox.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — When Conor Collins teaches his Advanced Placement U.S. History class, he asks students to think about some of the challenges Black people could have faced during Reconstruction after American enslavement was abolished.