The Reconstruction era was the period after the Civil War, from 1865 to 1877, when the Confederacy was reincorporated into the United States and enslaved people became free citizens. During Reconstruction, Black Americans briefly held significant power in federal and state governments.
Reconstruction Quotes in The Mis-Education of the Negro
The The Mis-Education of the Negro quotes below are all either spoken by Reconstruction or refer to Reconstruction. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 9
Quotes
The elimination of the Negro from politics, then, has been most unfortunate. The whites may have profited thereby temporarily, but they showed very little foresight. How the whites can expect to make of the Negroes better citizens by leading them to think that they should have no part in the government of this country is a mystery. To keep a man above vagabondage and crime he needs among other things the stimulus of patriotism, but how can a man be patriotic when the effect of his education is to the contrary?
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Reconstruction Term Timeline in The Mis-Education of the Negro
The timeline below shows where the term Reconstruction appears in The Mis-Education of the Negro. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2: How We Missed the Mark
...philanthropists and the federal government helped create churches and schools for emancipated Black Southerners. During Reconstruction, these schools became publicly funded. But rather than adapting to Black people’s specific needs, these...
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Chapter 8: Professional Educated Discouraged
...with no alternative. For instance, most Black law schools closed during after the backlash to Reconstruction, precisely when Black lawyers were most needed.
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Chapter 9: Political Education Neglected
This distorted education system explains why Black lawyers denounce Reconstruction and Black leaders protest teaching civics in Black schools. While they think political education would...
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...issues relevant to Black voters, but they don’t participate in major national decisions (unlike during Reconstruction).
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Chapter 10: The Loss of Vision
...equality and accepting segregation, depending on which is more convenient for them personally. For example, Reconstruction leaders demanded civil rights but supported segregated schools.
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