About This Lesson
In this lesson, students learn about Reconstruction and the challenges that African Americans faced when trying to embrace their full humanity and rights as citizens in the years immediately following the Civil War by exploring constitutional amendments, journalistic accounts and primary documents written by and about freedpeople during this time period. While Reconstruction (1865-1877) was an era of extreme violence, terror and disruption for African Americans living in formerly Confederate states, the music that forms the backbone of American popular music– blues, work songs and spirituals– survived and continued to develop during these years.
