Mississippi

Educator Experiences

Theron Wilkerson, a social studies teacher in Jackson, emphasized in response to our survey that “the Reconstruction period is only a minor, if not completely ignored subject” in the high school U.S. history course and the standardized state exam. He added, “The U.S. Reconstruction period is central to understanding United States and global histories of chattel slavery and post-emancipation as well as the will to silence that history today.” Wilkerson teaches a course in African American Studies, which “offers more leeway to not only teach Reconstruction more thoroughly, but opportunities to explore the continuities and changes as sparked by Reconstruction in later periods across multiple disciplines.”

Other respondents to our survey expressed concern with the ongoing conservative effort to ban the teaching of “critical race theory” in classrooms. One educator noted that drawing connections to “Black History Month and celebrations of Juneteenth and national celebrations of period history” allowed them to introduce discussions of Reconstruction into their lessons.

In an interview for the Hechinger Report, Pascagoula teacher Cristina Tosto explained that she makes sure her students know that despite their state’s history of Jim Crow oppression, Mississippi elected the first African American to ever serve a full term in the U.S. Senate, Blanche K. Bruce, during Reconstruction. She added, “Often the history can be depressing, but there was a lot of progress made [during Reconstruction] and that’s what I teach my students. I want them to know that African-American history included progress, triumph and victory, as well as struggle.”

Columbus teacher Chuck Yarborough was interviewed for The Atlantic about why and how he teaches about Reconstruction. “You can’t understand American history without understanding the steps forward, racially and socioeconomically, that Reconstruction presented initially, and then the steps backward that were taken with the violent reestablishment of white supremacy. You can’t understand the present without seeing the connections between this history and the socioeconomic and racial imbalances it created. But Reconstruction is not on the state test. Therefore, the schools that are teaching the state tests are not teaching Reconstruction at all, and in today’s society, that’s particularly problematic. . . [When students arrive in my class], the vast majority of them have not been taught Reconstruction. So . . . I start with the end of the Civil War — 1865 — and then I teach Reconstruction for the first several weeks of the class.”

Assessment

Mississippi’s Reconstruction standards are inadequate. Notably lacking from the standards is any mention of the Freedmen's Bureau, Black political mobilization, the expansion of civil and political rights, or the role of white supremacist terrorism in defeating Reconstruction. It is especially troubling that students’ initial engagement and interpretation of Reconstruction in elementary school is focused on solely the "negative" aspects of the period, ignoring far-reaching gains made through organizing, educating, and legislating to expand political and social freedoms. While there is a more holistic presentation of Reconstruction in middle school, that initial framing could be difficult to overcome. 

Particularly troubling is the description of white supremacist terrorism and racial disenfranchisement presented in the middle school standard as “Southern resistance to Reconstruction.” This framing conflates “Southern” with white, and erases positive accomplishments of Black Mississippians. 

Coverage of Reconstruction in the standards for the optional Mississippi Studies, Problems in American Democracy, and African American Studies courses is far stronger than in the required history courses. Transferring elements of the standards from these courses into the core elementary and middle school history courses would go a long way toward improving Mississippi’s coverage of Reconstruction in the classroom.

Teaching Reconstruction effectively requires centering Black people’s struggles to redefine freedom and equality and gain control of their own land and labor during and after the Civil War. Any discussion of Reconstruction must also grapple with the role of white supremacist terrorism in the defeat of Reconstruction and the negative and positive legacies of the era that persist to this day. 

In 2022, Republican lawmakers introduced HB437, a bill designed to prohibit schools from teaching “divisive concepts” or participating in “race or sex scapegoating.” They also introduced ten other bills that target teaching about racism or sexism in the classroom. SB2098, in particular, would require students to learn a “factually accurate history of the United States” that “shall not include the teaching of what is colloquially known as ‘critical race theory.’” Gov. Tate Reeves signed into law SB2113, which bans schools from making a “distinction or classification of students based on account of race.” Another bill died in committee in 2023. A 2024 bill that would have established “prohibited concepts” in schools and a reporting and investigation system also died in committee.

Several respondents to our survey expressed concern about the possible chilling effects on classroom education that such bills can have around the country, particularly on discussions of the history and legacies of Reconstruction.

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