Group I: Your task is to prepare a presentation supporting the argument of Eric McKitrick. Try to lead
your audience to a logical conclusion regarding the “failure” of Radical Reconstruction and its
implications for the nation's future. Buttress your argument with at least five telling pieces of evidence.
Appropriate supportive data might take the form of particularly moving pictures, short readings,
cartoons, public documents, charts, graphs, or diary entries.
Eric McKitrick contends that Radical Reconstruction, which was designed to bring about a social
revolution in race relations, failed to help the African-American find his or her proper place in
American life. He cites three reasons for this failure: confused priorities, opposition from southern
whites, and federal government's unwillingness to maintain the long-term pressure necessary to
accomplish Radical Republican goals.
1. Begin by acknowledging real accomplishments of Radical Republicans during the years 18651877.
2. Contrast Radical Republican goals with steps that might have better prepared AfricanAmericans for successful integration into American society politically, economically, an
socially.
3. Demonstrate the extent to which southern whites were forced to accept, for a time, regimes they
did not want.
4. Explain why commitment to Radical Republican Reconstruction ended and why Reconstruction
ended officially in 1877.
5. Conclude with your assessment of the implications of the end of Radical Reconstruction for
African Americans in the South at that time and the implications for the future. Does your
research help you to identify a major reason for the failure to accomplish the successful
integration of African Americans into American life in the years immediately after the war?
Group 2: In contrast to earlier historians who viewed Reconstruction in negative terms and focused on
the era's tragedies and graft, corruption, high taxes, and huge public debts, revisionist historians have
found much to admire in the preparations begun in the early postwar years to integrate African
Americans into American society. Your group's task is to prepare a presentation analyzing the
achievements of “Black Reconstruction.” Butters your argument with at least five telling pieces of
evidence. Appropriate supportive data might take the form of particularly moving pictures, short
readings, cartoons, public documents, charts, graphs, or diary entries.
1. Begin by defining the term “Black Reconstruction.”
2. Analyze to what extent African American goals of education, economic development and
establishing and reaffirming community were achieved in the period 1865-1877.
3. Give examples that demonstrate the desire of African Americans to establish independence and
gain control over their own lives and destinies.
4. In what ways did “Black Reconstruction” pave the way for the Civil Rights Movement of the
1960's?
5. How do you account for the fact that the achievements of “Black Reconstruction” were give so
little recognition until recently?