New Jersey
Reconstruction Vignette
| Mr. Bradley, the founder of Asbury Park, has been moved to protest against what he calls the monopolizing of the seats by these colored sojourners, who, in their turn, have held a meeting to denounce him for undertaking to interfere with their rights. Of course if the seats are provided for the public, the colored people have as much right to them as the white people, so long as they conduct themselves properly. First come first served must be the rule, and whoever finds an empty seat is at liberty to take it, whatever his complexion. Nor even if they are private property is it possible to make any reasonable discrimination against their use by decent colored people in a place like Asbury Park. Yet it seems that the white visitors, even when they are fellow Methodists, are outraged when they find the privileges of the beach largely enjoyed by the colored visitors. They are willing that they should get food for their souls at the camp meetings, and are not averse to employing them as servants, but they do not want to sit by them on the board walk. |
During Reconstruction, New Jersey vacation destinations drew white and Black visitors alike. Many white tourists opposed sharing spaces of leisure with Black patrons and, in the 1880s, some local officials tried to implement segregated facilities and vacation times. In a June 29, 1887, article from The Sun, excerpted here, the author described white outrage at the idea and practice of Black recreation in Asbury Park.
Source: Chronicling America
New Jersey
Standards Overview
Coverage of Reconstruction: Partial
ZEP Standards Rubric Score: 1.5 out of 10
Coverage of Reconstruction is mandated in New Jersey as all districts are required by the state law (Amistad Commission) to “incorporate the information regarding the contributions of African Americans to our country in an appropriate place in the curriculum of elementary and secondary school students.” Unfortunately, this has not yet impacted New Jersey state standards: the coverage of Reconstruction is partial, and their content is dreadful. Students are supposed to learn about Reconstruction first by the end of grade 8 and then again by the end of grade 12. The New Jersey Department of Education adopted new state standards in 2020.
Middle School
The standards for middle school focus on analyzing the “economic impact of Reconstruction on the South from different perspectives,” the “effectiveness” of the Reconstruction Amendments, and comparing and contrasting Congressional vs. Presidential Reconstruction plans. The standards also ask students to “examine the roles of women, African Americans, and Native Americans in the Civil War,” but not specifically during Reconstruction.
High School
The high school standards are similar to those in middle school, though the discussion of the Reconstruction Amendments is here connected to “African Americans’ ability to participate in influencing governmental policies.” Students also use the Amendments to examine the relationship between national and state governments. Much of the focus of the high school standards is on whether Reconstruction successfully “reunit[ed] the country” and why “some Southern individuals and states” resisted those efforts.
Educator Experiences
New Jersey teachers who responded to our survey emphasized that the state standards are far too broad and textbooks are not useful when it comes to Reconstruction. However, they reported generally being able to supplement their lesson plans with outside resources. Some acted on their own initiative but others reported their districts offered extensive information and support to improve Reconstruction lesson plans. One high school teacher explained that they were able to connect Reconstruction to current events like the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and mass incarceration.
Several teachers suggested that the timing of the Reconstruction unit at the end of grade 8 led to some teachers giving the topic less attention than it deserved. Others described concerns about teaching such a complex topic during the pandemic, in a virtual environment, where parents might overhear lesson plans and take offense at open discussions of racism and white supremacy.
Assessment
Overall, New Jersey’s standards on Reconstruction are insufficient. Though the standards touch on the politics and policies of Reconstruction, they do little to engage with the experiences of Black people during the period, especially their struggles to secure their freedom and autonomy. This is particularly troubling considering the state mandate for schools to teach the “contributions of African Americans to our country.”
In both grade levels in which it is taught, Reconstruction is presented as a political project focused on reunifying the nation after the Civil War that was opposed by white Southerners for complicated reasons. At the high school level, standards focusing on resistance to Reconstruction often equate “Southerners” with “white Southerners” and conceal the efforts and achievements of African Americans who also lived in the South. Missing from this narrative is any mention of Black people’s efforts to gain political and economic equality and independence or the violent efforts by the KKK and other white supremacist terrorists to reinscribe racial hierarchies. Also missing is any discussion of the positive and negative legacies of Reconstruction, though the Reconstruction Amendments are mentioned and could provide a jumping off point for such discussion.
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 Jan. 2021, Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law S1028, allocating the Amistad Commission in the Department of Education but independent of the department’s control. The law “requires public schools to include instruction on accomplishments and contributions of African Americans to American society.” It delineates the Amistad Commission’s role in distributing educational materials to educators, monitoring and assessing their inclusion in New Jersey’s education system, and otherwise supporting teaching of “the African slave trade, slavery in America, the vestiges of slavery in this country and the contributions of African Americans to our society.” Among these efforts, the commission has sponsored an interactive curriculum with resources for teaching social studies.
In November 2021, Republican lawmakers introduced S4166, a bill designed to ban “critical race theory” and “issue advocacy” from classrooms. In early 2022, they introduced two similar bills. 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. Others expressed their commitment to continue to teach honestly about U.S. history and signed the Zinn Education Project pledge to teach truth. For example, Irvington elementary school teacher Sundjata Sekou wrote, “If teaching about racism, systemic oppression, or anti-Blackness becomes illegal in New Jersey classrooms, I will purposely break that law once an hour Mondays to Thursdays and twice an hour on Fridays!”