What’s the History of Reconstruction? In Many States, Students Don’t Get the Whole Picture

By Sarah Schwartz | January 12, 2022 | Education Week

In recent political debates over how to teach U.S. history, the subject of slavery has loomed large.

Long-documented omissions and misrepresentations in lessons have left students with incomplete understandings of the period. As some teachers have adopted new resources that center the experiences of Black Americans and trace slavery’s impacts through to the present day, conservative politicians and pundits have pushed back against narratives that make these connections. 

But a new report makes the case that the period immediately following the Civil War and the end of slavery is getting overlooked and distorted in history classes, too. And the consequences, it argues, are no less significant.

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