Historians describe the creation of schools and focus on education — for both blacks and whites — in the South during Reconstruction. Eric Foner: Freedom had many meanings to people coming right out ...

“It’s impossible to understand the rest of the history of the United States without an understanding of Reconstruction,” wrote a Louisiana middle school teacher last spring in response to a survey ...

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 ...

In the past few years, the period in American history known as Reconstruction has become increasingly prominent in the public consciousness. The dominant academic narrative is now mainstream: ...