Requiem for Reconstruction : Black countermemory and the legacy of the Lowcountry's lost political generation / Robert D. Bland.
| Author/creator | Bland, Robert D. author. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2026] |
| Copyright Date | ©2026 |
| Description | 248 pages : illustrations (black and white), maps (black and white) ; 24 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Series | The John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture. http://id.loc.gov/resources/hubs/fe4d1fe7-0969-f38c-b42d-3f1b01565d79 ^A413403 |
| Contents | A great movement in South Carolina: the Black Port Royal Experiment and the origins of postbellum racial destiny -- A multiple-front memory war: redemption and remembering Reconstruction-era violence -- The rise of the Black Seventh: racial gerrymandering, rival geography, and the struggle over the Republican Party's destiny in South Carolina -- Reconstruction's last congressman: the Gilded Age Black public sphere and the battle over Robert Smalls's legacy -- More good from Nazareth: the Lowcountry's long Reconstruction, disfranchisement, and archiving countermemory at the century's end -- The Jim Crow generation: Black teachers, the industrial school movement, and the educational battle over Reconstruction's legacy in the segregated South -- Requiem for Reconstruction: the Great Migration, interwar African American history, and the afterlife of the Reconstruction generation. |
| Abstract | "The promise of Reconstruction sparked a transformative era in American history as free and newly emancipated Black Americans sought to redefine their place in a nation still grappling with the legacy of slavery. Often remembered as a period of failed progressive change that gave way to Jim Crow and second-class citizenship, Reconstruction's tragic narrative has long overshadowed the resilience and agency of African Americans during this time. Requiem for Reconstruction chronicles Reconstruction's legacy by focusing on key Black figures such as South Carolina congressman Robert Smalls, Judge William Whipper, writer Frances Rollin, and others who shaped postbellum Black America. Robert D. Bland traces the impact of the Reconstruction generation - Black Americans born between 1840 and 1870 who saw Reconstruction as a defining political movement and worked to preserve its legacy by establishing a new set of historical practices such as formulating new archives, shaping local community counternarratives, using the Black press to inform national audiences about Southern Republican politics, and developing a framework to interpret the recent past's connection to their present world. Set in South Carolina's Lowcountry - a hub of Black freedom, landownership, and activism - this book shows how late nineteenth-century Black leaders, educators, and journalists built a powerful countermemory of Reconstruction, defying the dominant white narrative that sought to erase their contributions"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Issued in other form | ebook version : 9781469691909 |
| LCCN | 2025032996 |
| ISBN | 9781469691862 hardcover |
| ISBN | 1469691868 hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781469691879 paperback |
| ISBN | 1469691876 paperback |
| ISBN | electronic book |
| ISBN | electronic book |
| ISBN | electronic book |
| ISBN | electronic book |
| Standard identifier# | CIPO000315143 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyner | General Stacks | E185.93 .S7 B53 2026 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |