Black Reconstruction

A term referring to the period of Reconstruction during which Black Americans, newly enfranchised, played leading roles in southern state governments—founding public school systems, writing democratic constitutions, and serving as legislators and officials. It is also the title of W.E.B. Du Bois’s 1935 book marking his turn to Marxist-inflected historical analysis.

Claims that use this term

• Black Reconstruction officials founded the American public school system
• Black Reconstruction legislators created the South’s public school system
• Black Reconstruction delegates wrote the South’s most democratic constitutions
• Black Reconstruction marked Du Bois’s turn to Marxist-inflected theoretical history.
• Black Reconstruction marked Du Bois’s first break with the Black elite he belonged to
• Du Bois saw Black Reconstruction suffrage as falling short of true proletarian dictatorship