'No, Reconstruction did not 'fail'; it was destroyed. And its destruction was reinforced by a regime of laws, institutions, and violence that lasted well into the 20th century—and beyond.' ZinnEdProject
," the Zinn Education Project found that most states tell a top-down story of government action that ignores the role of formerly enslaved people organizing for freedom. State standards include Black people more often as objects than subjects.
Equally troubling, several states' standards reveal the fingerprints of the Dunning School, an early-20th-century historical interpretation of Reconstruction named after the Columbia University historian William Archibald Dunning, who deemed the era one of"scandalous misrule" by"carpetbaggers and Negroes."
The narrative of Reconstruction perpetuated by many state social studies standards is part of a longer and larger struggle over the past, the latest episode of which can be seen in a rash ofMore than 17.7 million public school students enrolled in almost 900 districts across the country have had their learning restricted by local action and the recent slate of laws and policies aimed to ban teaching concepts related to race, racism, and gender, and often deemed"critical race theory.
For much of the 20th century, the Dunning School was the dominant narrative of Reconstruction—expressed not just in academic dissertations and books, but also in popular culture such as"Birth of a Nation" and"Gone with the Wind" .
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