Pennsylvania
Reconstruction Vignette
| The great problem to be solved by the American people, if I understand it, is this: Whether or not there is strength enough in democracy, virtue enough in our civilization, and power enough in our religion to have mercy and deal justly with four millions of people but lately translated from the old oligarchy of slavery to the new commonwealth of freedom; and upon the right solution of this question depends in a large measure the future strength, progress and durability of our nation. . . . Less than twenty five years ago slavery clasped hands with King Cotton, and said slavery fights and cotton conquers for American slavery. Since then slavery is dead, the colored man has exchanged the fetters on his wrist for the ballot in his hand. . . . And yet, with all the victories and triumphs which freedom and justice have won in this country, I do not believe there is another civilized nation under heaven where there are half as many people who have been brutally and shamefully murdered, with or without impunity, as in this Republic within the last ten years. . . . Our work in this country is grandly constructive. Some races have come into this world and overthrown and destroyed. But if it is glory to destroy, it is happiness to save; and oh, what a noble work there is before our nation! . . . Women, in your golden youth; mother, binding around your heart all the precious ties of life, let no magnificence of culture, or amplitude of fortune, or refinement of sensibilities, repel you from helping the weaker and less favored. If you have ampler gifts, hold them as larger opportunities with which you can benefit others. |
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911)
Source: Internet Archive
On April 14, 1875, writer, orator, and activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper spoke in Philadelphia at the Centennial Anniversary of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. In her address, excerpted here, Harper acknowledged the progress made during Reconstruction, the violent attempts to undo that progress, and the work still needed to fulfill the promise of freedom. She noted the shortcomings of white people and political parties who claimed allyship, and urged African Americans to continue organizing for justice. At the end of her remarks, Harper encouraged Black women, specifically, to carry the movement forward.
Source: BlackPast
Pennsylvania
Standards Overview
Coverage of Reconstruction: Nonexistent
ZEP Standards Rubric Score: 0 out of 10
The coverage of Reconstruction in Pennsylvania’s standards is nonexistent. The Pennsylvania Department of Education adopted the current academic standards in 2010. In 2014, Pennsylvania also adopted standards in reading and writing history but those standards also do not mention Reconstruction. Pennsylvania is a local-control state, meaning most curricular decisions are made at the district level.
The state standards are very broad with almost no content-specific examples. Reconstruction is not specifically mentioned in either the U.S. history course taught during grade 8, or in grades 9–12 when students take a U.S. history course that spans 1850 to the present. Certain Reconstruction topics and themes are discussed in the “Materials and Resources” sections of some standards. For example, a grade 12 standard requiring students to “analyze landmark United States Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution and its amendments” includes extensive external resources on the three Reconstruction Amendments.
Because Pennsylvania’s standards provide so little information about whether and how districts and schools should teach Reconstruction, we chose to investigate curricula at the district level. The Local Snapshot below is not meant as a judgment of these districts’ approach to Reconstruction. They were chosen largely at random and are not factored into the grade the state standards receive. The brief analysis of district-level curricula that follows is intended to simply provide a snapshot into how state standards, or lack thereof, can shape Reconstruction pedagogy in the classroom.
Local Snapshot
Grade 9
Located just outside the state capital of Harrisburg, Lower Dauphin covers Reconstruction as its own unit at the beginning of the grade 9 U.S. history course. The “Key Vocabulary” terms for students to learn in this unit are largely devoted to national politics: the Reconstruction Amendments, Reconstruction plans, Andrew Johnson, Radical Republicans, the KKK, and the Compromise of 1877.
Grade 8
Located west of Harrisburg, Carlisle has a grade 8 social studies curriculum that devotes 16 instructional days to the unit, with a general focus of teaching students that “Reconstruction changed the nation but failed to fulfill its promise of equality.” The curriculum describes both national politics and the experiences of Black people, touching on various Reconstruction plans and Supreme Court cases alongside discussions of sharecropping and tenant farming. While the KKK, lynching, and various forms of racially targeted disenfranchisement are included in the “Factual Concepts” section, they are not directly connected to the narrative arc of the story that the curriculum presents. The curriculum contains connections to more modern events, encouraging students to “assess key 20th Century events that led to the fulfillment of promises made during Reconstruction.”
The School District of Philadelphia
Philadelphia’s school district is taking one of the more innovative approaches to curriculum adoption. Rather than purchasing corporate textbooks, the Office of Curriculum and Instruction has convened teams of expert teachers from across the district to rewrite district curriculum. In 2005, Philadelphia became one of the first major cities requiring students to take an African American history course to graduate high school. This course allows for more time to delve into Reconstruction, explicitly from the perspective of African Americans, in addition to the 17 days of instruction recommended for Philadelphia’s high school U.S. history course. Furthermore, the district has launched a new African American History Teacher Leadership Cohort, asking some of the strongest African American history teachers in the district to provide high quality professional development for their colleagues, including workshops on teaching Reconstruction. While the African American history curriculum is currently being revised, high school teacher and Rethinking Schools editor Adam Sanchez, who is a part of the team revising the curriculum, told us, “we’re developing an in-depth unit on Reconstruction that centers the perspectives of African Americans, highlights their successful struggles for expanding democracy and racial justice, and helps students draw out the many lessons of the Reconstruction era for today.”
Educator Experiences
Teachers who responded to our survey emphasized that the state standards are “somewhat vague,” “written at a high level” with few details, and “gloss over Reconstruction.” With limited time to teach a great deal of history, teachers are forced to make tough choices about what topics to prioritize. One high school teacher explained that they chose to “spend less time on Civil War battles in order to have more time for Reconstruction.”
Concerns over political backlash to teaching a comprehensive history of Reconstruction also shaped some teacher responses. One high school teacher noted that “honest dialogue about white supremacy and the Civil War in American memory is vital to teaching this topic.” Yet, especially in conservative areas of the state, teachers expressed concern that students and in some cases their parents were absorbing propaganda from “Turning Point USA or Prager U” that made honest discussions of race and American history more difficult to sustain.
Assessment
Pennsylvania’s state standards on Reconstruction are nonexistent. The lack of specific content-based requirements means that each district chooses how and when — or even whether — to cover the topic. The only Reconstruction era topic potentially covered by the standards — “landmark United States Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution and its Amendments” — privileges a top-down and political narrative of Reconstruction. It does not engage with the efforts of Black people to push for the enactment and enforcement of critical amendments to the Constitution, or the white supremacist violence that rendered several of those amendments ineffective.
In Pennsylvania, as in many states, Reconstruction straddles the gap between the U.S. history courses in middle and high school. In some cases, it is covered in grade 8, in others in grade 9. This variable and often rushed timing in the school year, combined with the lack of content-specific standards, makes it quite difficult for educators and students to adequately engage with the history and legacies of Reconstruction.
Without guidance around key Reconstruction-era history, many students will not learn about the intensification of white supremacy, the Black Codes, the KKK, debates over who would control land and labor, and Black agency and political organizing. 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 June 2021, Rep. Russ Diamond introduced HB1532, a bill designed to prohibit teaching about systemic racism and sexism. The bill died in committee, but its introduction is still troubling. 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.