Take a Deep Dive Into Reconstruction: America After the Civil War

Take a Deep Dive Into Reconstruction: America After the Civil War

We all studied the Civil War in school, yet many of us came away with a very limited understanding of its aftermath. We know that Lincoln freed the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation. But what we often didn’t learn was what happened next and how the themes of Reconstruction, a “brief moment in the sun” for African Americans, and Redemption, the backlash that followed, persist to this day.

Each of the four Sundays in February from 2 to 4 PM, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead will present Reconstruction: America After the Civil War. The creator of this remarkable series of four one-hour films is Harvard scholar, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. Each week viewers will take a deep dive into the tumultuous period following the Civil War when African Americans gained freedom from slavery and a brief period of civil rights, only to be followed by a backlash that established "Jim Crow.” Viewers will come away with a solid understanding of how the aftermath of the Civil War required not only physical repair of the states, ravaged by fighting, but also the social and political revolution created by freeing previously enslaved people.

At the end of each film, viewers will be able to share their thoughts via Zoom. To secure the Zoom link for this free series, which is part of the UUCM's Meetinghouse Program, email registeruucm@gmail.com.