a reconstruction. if he had observed, the general rule of two terms, then he would have left office in the spring of 1869. and reconstruction might still have only been in its infancy. we might not have really have had an answer, at all. if lincoln had lived. >> i have to tell you that, in reading the book, andrew johnson is often ranked as one of the worst u.s. presidents. you often hear, behind his name, was impeached. fell short of conviction by one vote. but, you really learn, a lot about the mistakes that andrew johnson, made. and, he had a republican legislature. and, he vetoed bill after bill after bill, that, the vetoes were, overruled. >> andrew johnson was, and some respects, a mistake from the start. because nobody ever expected him to be president. why was he in the vice presidency, to begin with? well, he was selected as lincoln's running mate. for the 1860, for campaign. because, in 1864, the leadership of the republican party, decided that they want to demonstrate, that they were, a coal

, especially reconstruction. the dunning school was in large measure responsible for the view of reconstruction that regards it as some kind of alien imposition by vengeful northerners out to get harmless, innocent southerners because the dunning school was a school of academic interpretation, that was what replicated itself in college faculty after college faculty, history department after history department, which then percolates down into school systems and gets taught in schools. that would not begin to change until the 1950s and the era of civil rights. but i think that the time for the lost cause has long since expired. my grandmother used to tell me stories of how when she was a girl in school in philadelphia, every memorial day old union veterans would come, members of the grand army of the republic u with their little blue caps and blue jackets. they would come and talk to the children in those classes about what they had gone through, and they didn't just do it just to tell war stories. the grand arm of

my job is to oversee all of their reconstruction money -- and the reconstruction money that is being spent currently in afghanistan. i have auditors, investigators, engineers, analysts, and i have been doing it for about 10 years. we are at 70 ig's for each of the agencies in the federal government. the difference between us and them as we are temporary and we go out of existence at a certain time when the amount of money falls below 250 million. we can look at the whole of government. most ig's can. they can only look at their agency. when congress created us, they gave us the opportunity to look at any money spent by any u.s. agency in afghanistan for reconstruction. host: how much money has been appropriated by the u.s. government for reconstruction efforts and how much has been spent? guest: i think we are over 143.2 billion dollars for reconstruction. i have to check that. we have a billion dollars in the pipeline and a couple of billion of new money that had not been allocated yet. host: from your report on the 30th of this year, 143 billion and you said appropriated for -- 14

so that was the view of reconstruction in the sixties. not only was their agreement of reconstruction, but the politics of impeachment, which was all three betrayed jar charges against johnson as politically motivated with no legal basis. what was the legal basis than for impeachment? there was something no as the tenure of office act. congress was trying to restrict johnson's powers as much as they could. part of the tenure of office act said the senate approval was needed to remove a cabinet member that the president appointed during his term of the advice and consent of the senate. nonetheless, johnson fired secretary of war stanton, who was a radical to keep him from using the military to intervene in the south. now, johnson has some really good attorneys, and his attorneys responded to this legal claim or charge by saying, hold it stanton didn't even come on to the act. he was appointed by lincoln, up by johnson. and further, even if he did come under the act, the only reason johnson was doing this was to get the supreme court to rul

they have all agreed on reconstruction. and i'm going to give you just a sense of what that agreement about reconstruction was. people don't remember this, but johnson came back to the senate. great was his personal triumph, of his policy and more significant. one by one, the rotten bureaus despite the u.s. army have fallen or are falling. soon no relic will remain of the hybrid empire. just to give you a sense how long this view of reconstruction lasted, in 1960, dewit's book was praised by the ph.d. advisers. it's something of a classic whose narrative is not likely to need redoing for some time to come if ever. so that was the view of reconstruction in the '60s. now there's not only was there agreement about the politics of reconstruction, but also about the politics of impeachment, which all three portray charges against johnson with no legal basis. what was the legal basis of the impeachment? it was the tenure of office act. they need to remove the cabinet member. johnson fired the secretary of war. who was radical in

the reconstruction act tried to reverse that. so were there grounds to declare johnson unfit for office? here i want to turn to a historian who much more in the mid-50s was a profile in courage and that's david donald. remember at that time johnson was considered a good president. and yet for the american heritage he wrote an essay called why they impeach andrew johnson. and donald details how johnson's political ineptitude destroyed any chance of bringing the nation in a way that would have done justice to the defeated south and to affkeep americans. and i'm going to quote at length from donald because his voice doesn't get heard as much as it should. apprentice in the rough and tumble politics of tennessee where johnson continue today make stump speeches from the white house. all too often he spoke extemporaneously and permitted heckler tuesday draw him into angry charges against his critics. you can see why -- i need to quote a little bit from this. the andrew johnson never learned that the president of the united states must

the turning point for this story really happens with the end of reconstruction and formal reconstruction where the union and military forces occupy the south and head, kept the reconstruction governments in place. that's rolled back in 1877 as part of the disputed election of 1876. between samuel tilden and rutherford hayes, and that election gets thrown to congress to decide, and what happens is the house and the senate are controlled by different political parties and can't come to an agreement as to the house deciding it. so they create a special electoral commission composed of five senators, five representatives and five supreme court justices. and in the results that had come back, there were three southern states that had disputed returns. so what shows up is two different groups. one for tilden, one for hayes. the commission comes back and finds in favor of hayes, awarding him those votes. but as part of the political negotiation that struck, to make him president, the southern states manage to, democrats manage to push republicans to end reconstruction formally. that happens in

once reconstruction ends. and here you've got a guy who is a great speaker, a law background, sets up a law practice. but he gets almost no business. and he is forced to move out of state, and eventually in the mid 18 eighties, he dies in poverty. and sadly, that is a story of so many of these 19th century individuals. who leave congress, and then with the onset of jim crow, their careers just dry up. and that speaks to the larger kind of, political ramification at the end of reconstruction on what that meant to black people at the time. >> i want to point out something i find interesting as a curator and art historian, is the way that jim crow ends up being promulgated to the press, so that you get no business, because of racism and because of jim crow, and because of this is reinforced in the popular press. so as we move into the jim crow period, the press and the public, the way the public sees african american slaves presented to them, it really changes. and much more towards the caricature, then we are fa

and that is also the truth about reconstruction. reconstruction is saved at least for the moment, by andrew johnson being defeated and checked. but by the end of the year it was very clear there were many other forces to undo reconstruction. this is a headline from the richmond wake at the killing of a black voter, and the hard-line is, one vote less. that's we've got. general sheridan once said if he had a choice of living in hell or living in texas, he would live in hell and get rid of texas. that's the story for louisiana and georgia as well. terrorism and violence in tremendous array, take those states away from a majority of the black and white voters that supported reconstruction by intimidation, by violence, the rise of the klan. reconstruction would be on life support, even with the departure of andrew johnson, it would be at the edge of failure. which means in point of fact, we come to fastidious stevens in the weeks before he died. he felt a deep sense of failure, not of the failure to convict johnson alone, but his belief

-- reconstruction is in danger. and maybe the republic itself. and so, when you think of the man you had -- for secretary of war instead, this is the man. this was a man who was on record. thomas viewing, arguing that the congress was illegal. do you want him in charge of the war department? do you feel safe with him in charge of the war department? of course not. of course you don't. -- stephens on that fatal, day the attempt was made to drive stanton out. stuck around the house chambers, did i tell you, what's good did your moderation do you if you don't kill the beast, it will kill you. well, that kind of point out there, is where reconstruction came from. where, in fact, impeachment came from. and yet, at the end of the trial, followed over the next three months, the vote ultimately would be 35 votes to convict, 19 to acquit. one vote to many, in fact. on the acquittal side, to be overturned. johnson escaped by that one vote. you know, that i know that. that is part of our story. ten republicans, three of them r

they have to reconstruct all of that. and there is a spiritual reconstruction of sorts. donald trump is no longer allowed to spread his poison on social media every day and president biden and vice president harris spread their proposals for getting us through this pandemic and reconstructing american life after the pandemic. for perspective on this new reconstruction period, we will be joined at the end of this hour by isabelle wilkerson, the best selling author of "cast" and "the warmth of other suns." isabelle will get tonight's last word. today president biden pointed out that although he doesn't yet have republican congressional support for his covid relief legislation, he does have the country's support. >> the truth of the matter is the polling data from last night and all the polls you have all done, they come from you guys, not you personally but your networks and your organizations show that somewhere between 64% and 69% of the american people think we have to do this. and it's not about the money. it's about i order to do everything from open schools as we sho

well, this starts getting at the question of johnson, if he is resisting reconstruction and the reconstruction efforts of congress but there's times where he's willing to say, we need to have arrests, we need to guarantee republican form of government in every state, what is driving him? is it constitutional principles or is it something else? keep in mind also in talking about this precedent when he said why he had rejected it earlier and that he's recognizing once again that north carolina here has a right to have a republican form of government. and that's the power of the united states to maintain that. as you just mentioned, what is guiding him? since he seems to be bouncing around constitutionally, there's times he wants to preserve the republican form of government in each state. other times he doesn't care as much. there's times he wants lots of arrests and times he says that's horrible. times he says there's no precedent for having military governors when he was a military governor himself five years earlier. i would suggest one of the things that drives him and drives his views on th

johnson vetoed, not surprisingly military reconstruction. he said that he felt, according to the andrew johnson site, felt that military reconstruction it was an unconstrained constitutional extension of federal power, that would lead to despotism. as veto message to congress. i submit to congress whether this measure is not in its whole character scope and object with the president, he saying this is without precedent. and without authority, impalpable conflict with the plane is provisions of the constitution. invasion, insurrection, rebellion a domestic violence were anticipated when the government was framed, and the means of repelling in suppressing the more widely provided for in the constitution. and finally, the constitution also forbids the arrest of the citizen without judicial warrant, founded on probable cause. this bill authorize authorizes unrest with a warrant, at the pleasure of the military commander. he's complaining here about this act and, telling some of his reasons why. one, there's no precedent. no president for this mi

the third was not about the war so much as reconstruction, which argue that reconstruction disrupted antebellum race relations and was a corrupt time of misrule. and finally, confederates were the most valiant and dedicated soldiers of all time. we will start with the first one and work our way through. the first is perhaps the easiest, but also perhaps the most important. when we see these key lies, which we have on the screen right now slavery not being the cause of the war and being a corrupt time of misrule that slavery was not the cause of the war is the one i run into most still. it's probably easiest to debunk. war was not about slavery. they made it clear it is, but just that we should declare the common elements that have induced our cause. it is explaining why they wanted to leave. it's a list of complaints. and then they said after they said here's our reason, they said, the first thing they say is, our position is thoroughly identified with slavery, the greatest material interest in the world. then they go on and list all the ways -- slavery is not being allowed to expand

my job is to oversee all of their reconstruction money -- and the reconstruction money that is beingpent currently in afghanistan. i have auditors, investigators, engineers, analysts, and i have been doing it for about 10 years. we are at 70 ig's for each of the agencies in the federal government. the difference between us and them as we are temporary and we go out of existence at a certain time when the amount of money falls below 250 million. we can look at the whole of government. most ig's can. they can only look at their agency. when congress created us, they gave us the opportunity to look at any money spent by any u.s. agency in afghanistan for reconstruction. host: how much money has been appropriated by the u.s. government for reconstruction efforts and how much has been spent? guest: i think we are over 143.2 billion dollars for reconstruction. i have to check that. we have a billion dollars in the pipeline and a couple of billion of new money that had not been allocated yet. host: from your report on the 30th of this year, 143 billion and you said appropriated for -- 14 bi

another one who is appointed during reconstruction is the first african-american page to serve in the house on the floor. alfred q. powell of manchester, virginia, just south across the james from richmond and he's appointed by a member who is part of the reconstructed virginia government, he is a carpet bagger from the north, a former union officer and he serves in a district that represents richmond and its environs. he is appointed in 1871, we know he serves about a year and a half in the house and he is also the other connection there is that he was the great-grand nephew of john mercer langston, who was in washington at that point. >> i think he was serving as the dean or president of howard university at the time and later he's going to be in congress himself, too. so there is the sort of network, there is this interesting kind of network of people who know other people and are able to move pieces around and make things happen. and then, you know, then we get from george downing in the 1860s running the house restaurant right up to the chief of staff for oscar de priest being re

reconstructing ourselves in this book.of the journey. the word community is the best word to encapsulate black history, to be black in america is almost never to be treated like an individual. dr. ibram x. kendi joins me now. the editor of "400 souls." good to see you again. thank you for being with us. in your book you write we shall overcome, we shall overcome some day. there's no better word than me. the emphasis on me starts in the earliest pages of this book. tell me more about that. >> thank you so much for having me on and, you know, we're excited. the other co-editor of this book, we're excited to have this book out in the world because these 90 writers in many ways reflect and in many ways are sampling of this incredibly diverse community known as black america. and what i mean by that is, one of the oldest racist ideas is this idea that black people are monolith, that we're all the same. that when you see a single black person acting negatively, you're actually viewing millions of people acting negatively, not a

it's only been the row reconstruction of the stairs. i'm happy that the caller was able to call in and express their concerns. even though, you know, the deck structure may predate everyone on this call through when we were born, but it doesn't mean it doesn't need to meet current codes many of the fact they want to reconstruct it, they need to meet current codes. i appreciate the arguments of the the appellant that the board has great powers and we do rely on the board to make these difficult decisions but our opinion is such work rice a variance and i appreciate that the argument of the appellant and it benefits his client to have that argument they have this authority in another case it wouldn't benefit we are looking at this and being consistent and how we apply these roles and we can uphold the permit and if we want to make the change to the location of legal versus illegal. we think that if the deck is to be replaced it needs to go through the variance process and the neighbor can have their variant process at that point regarding

we have the first southern members, elected since reconstruction. andrew yang, from georgia. and barbara jordan from texas. and, as the numbers of african americans in congress increased, one thing that this allows, that core group to do, is to create an issue's caucus. so, in 1971, they have formation of, the congressional black caucus. which is a group of roughly, a dozen members of -- at that point. but it is able to exercise some power as a voting bloc. and, as a organization which educates members on issues that are important to the black community, nationally. the black caucus becomes involved very early on. in things like opposing apartheid in south africa. building momentum to pass a federal holiday, to commemorate martin luther king's birthday. but, it's operating at a legislative level. but inside, the institution to, it's important to african american members. because it is doing things like getting them on to bigger and better committees. and, into positions where they can influence a broad range of legislation. one of my favorite parts of the house collection, ou

if you think about what african-americans had to do, they had to sort of literally reconstruction their families, reconstruct their marriages under vastly different conditions, so the slave owners no longer were a factor. the third flesh as i refer to it in my book, and now you have these two people who have to negotiate what marriage means to them, you know, what is their relationship going to look like? is it going to look like more of the conventional patriarchal family? is it going to look like something more egalitarian, and so for me it's important to capture the dynamics of conflicts. these conflicts are all over the records. you see them in the freeman bureau records especially with couples not getting along. they are going to the freeman's bureau. you know, there's fighting, and there's anger and resentment and there's cheating. and so i think telling the full -- i mean, it -- this is what happens in families period. this is part what have it means, to you know, families in american so side. they are no different for african-americans so, you know, i think just embracing that a

. >> that requires thinking about how he thought about reconstruction. i don't think he thought enough about that before he died. a supporter of the homestead act and might have been more aggressive using the homestead act but i don't think he was thinking deeply about compensation. i don't think compensation was in general on the minds of most republicans there were few who thought about distribution and things like that but station was not something. compensation of the slaves not something he and most republicans were thinking about. >> i'd like to push you on this a bit and read the key parts. lincoln is killed, andrew johnson becomes president, andrew johnson shows himself to be a reactionary, he gets the left-wing oaxacan party really angry with him. is it possible to think andrew johnson reconstruction actually became more radical than it would have been had lincoln lived? >> yes, i think so. i think a lot of -- the 13th and 14th amendment but i think maybe the 15th amendment it was so deeply tied to the sense president could undermine reconstruct

the reconstruction era seems even more heartbreaking to me. because it's the time a policy we had higher expectations about things. you think about people who came out of slavery and thought, now we have a chance to make a new world for ourselves. we will go forward, we will have allegiance to the union. after all american african american soldiers fought in the union army to preserve the union and and slavery. so it was a new beginning. you hear about people crowding into the freedom role schools, to learn how to read and write, to get married, to have their families recognized by law. a time of hope. and then later on, those hopes were dashed law. the person i'm gonna talk about today was a person who sort of began the process of dashing them in ways. andrew johnson was the successor to abraham lincoln under tragic circumstances and, it's hard to imagine two more different type of people in terms of their stature. what's abraham lincoln means to the country versus what's a andrew johnson needs to the country. before i wrote this book, i'm of

it's only been the row reconstruction of the stairs. i'm happy that the caller was able to call in and express their concerns. even though, you know, the deck structure may predate everyone on this call through when we were born, but it doesn't mean it doesn't need to meet current codes many of the fact they want to reconstruct it, they need to meet current codes. i appreciate the arguments of the the appellant that the board has great powers and we do rely on the board to make these difficult decisions but our opinion is such work rice a variance and i appreciate that the argument of the appellant and it benefits his client to have that argument they have this authority in another case it wouldn't benefit we are looking at this and being consistent and how we apply these roles and we can uphold the permit and if we want to make the change to the location of legal versus illegal. we think that if the deck is to be replaced it needs to go through the variance process and the neighbor can have their variant process at that point regarding

from engineers perspective this is not to difficult it is a reconstruction project it is a reconstruction project so we have. a lot of experience on that so when these really line is completed the travel time from and you back great station to budapest will be shortened into 3 hours. in recent years serbia has blossomed into china's most favored balkan partner. beijing has granted 10000000000 euros worth of loans to servia more than to any other country in the region. but the new silk road project has created hardly any jobs here even the construction is largely being done by a chinese workforce that's been a typical feature of the belgian road initiative. china imports its own builders stationing them in the host country for months at a time just as now in serbia. investment from china began flowing as early as 2011 when the chinese consortium built the poop and bridge across the danube at a cost of 175000000 euros. it became the symbol of sino serbian friendship. most serbs view the flow of cash from china as a good thing even if the money is only borrowed the loans from chinese state b

after a devastating fire, see the reconstruction that never stopped during the pandemic. our exclusive look inside. >>> and later, this happened. the body parts found floating in a canal. but it's not what it appears. you're watching "world news now." now." do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy, even a term policy, for an immediate cash payment. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized that we needed a way to supplement our income. if you have one hundred thousand dollars or more of life insurance you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit conventrydirect.com to find out if you policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. i got this mountain bike for only $11. dealdash.com, the fair and honest bidding site. an ipad worth $505, was sold for less than $24; a playstation 4 for less than $16; and a schultz 4k television for less than $2. i won these bluetooth headphones f

you very much a day or an oboe so there for us she is the president of the european bank for reconstruction and development thank you for your time today thank you so much and speaking of growth and development africa's most populous country nigeria is no longer in recession nigeria's g.d.p. grew by a 10th of a percent last quarter beating the government's own estimates nigeria slipped into recession last year after a $12.00 punch of the coronavirus pandemic and falling oil prices nigerian officials say the early return to growth was due to the easing of its lock down and a gradual shift away from from its the pendants on oil production now widespread corruption has long been a drag on the nigerian economy as well on wednesday nigeria's senate approved abdul rashid as the country's new anti-corruption chief. our correspondent joins us now why is how sustainable is this growth. what it is only sustainable if the government is able to continue with the it would agree culture of policy initiated which you did results. good policies trying to fight against corruption and then because they growt

but reconstruction was short lived. jim crow laws and white sprim cysts dismantled -- supremacists dismantled voting rights, violent insurrection. federal troops were withdrawn from the south. following widespread white supremacy violence during the 1876 election and the subsequent election of rutherford b. hayes as president. joseph rainey spoke out against the removal of federal protection of voting rights. but in 1878, he lost re-election to former confedderate -- confederate officer richardson in a district, that was like south carolina, majority black. severe gerrymandering reduced the number of black south carolinians in congress to one. in the 1890's, he lost his bid for re-election in 1897, south carolina's representation in congress was, again, all white and remained all white for the next 95 years. segregation and black disenfranchisement were the law of the land until the 1960's. but thanks to the voting rights act of 1965 and its 1982 amendments, i was elected to this august body in 1992. today, congress is

alternatives like development finance i spoke to a different president of the european bank for reconstruction and development i asked her how best to finance countries out of a crisis. i think indeed we have focus on our friends in the to support our clients and there were countries of operation during the crisis and providing for example working capital for companies who lost revenue so the need because of the lack of luggage on the they needed working capital to continue to be effective and to be able to rebound and that has proven very effective we have provided also some that restructuring for a few months for companies that had difficulties to pay and support to vital infrastructure big infrastructure such as electricity companies railway companies companies that really were in trouble and that we supported accompanying the transformation during the crisis and also has proven very effective so there's been a wide range of activities but the e.p.a. already has also been criticized for failing to bring benefit to people in eastern europe and central asia for not doing enough to screen pote

she discusses the figures of reconstruction under president johnson. it is my pleasure to introduce our second speaker for the morning annette gordon-reed. professor reid is a professor at harvard law school, and she is a professor of history in the college of arts and scientists sciences. her first foray into writing, produced lost at sea, which was written when she was seven. so she is an overachiever. since then she has authored or coauthored six historical studies including monte cello and american family, which is one of the pulitzer prize for history in 2009. and she also won 15 additional awards, including the frederick douglass prize. her 2011 study, of andrew johnson and the subject of her top this morning, was praised as brilliantly written and fair minded, and the book is not available in the book store today so you will have to order it, but i do have the most recent book her most recent book and that is coauthored, and it is titled the most blessed of patriarchs thomas jefferson and the empire of the imagination. she will be available for

politics in the united states and for all kinds of issues important national issues related to reconstruction related to electoral politics to social change. um, and he pioneered a bunch of things about american political cartooning not least the editorial independence of political cartoonists, which is something that pat and i talk about later. i'm going to emphasize several things about nas that i think are particularly important for understanding nests position relative to voting. but first, i want to hand it over to pat because he also wants to make some remarks because now asked was the father of american political cartooning not the first political cartoonist to be influentially united states, but the first to really make a life out of it and to create a world for consumption of political cartoons as a form of politics and also as a form of visual entertainment especially of satire he is a central figure for all political cartoonists in this country and so pat as influential widely read and appreciated political cartoonists. this is a person for whom against him. pat is in some ways in

have been a reconstruction. it wasn't a complaint made in 2012, it wasn't a complaint made in 2016, it wasn't even in the materials submitted now, but i felt it was something that needed to be addressed now. i really look for the board's direction here. the reconstruction occurred ten years ago without complaint. it technically required a variance. this is a variance, but we didn't have that -- it was never identified as an issue. it could have been addressed in this variance that is before you now. we never did the notice for that, it wasn't contemplated by the zoning administrator, and i think the zoning administrator is following it by the book, we should have a new hearing. this is a de novo hearing, and it's up to the board. i'd like to get your feedback on that aspect of the project. the second aspect before the board is about that relationship and the fire wall, and if the stairs need to move, can they remain where they are with some changes? we really need the board's help to unpack some of these issues

when reconstruction failed, by and large because lincoln was killed, when reconstruction failed, it led to more than 100 years where we finally got to civil rights and voting act. you can draw a straight line as i said before, you can draw a line between the failure of reconstruction and the inability to tell the truth about our country through, all the way up emmit till and med ger evers and martin luther king, all the way up to heather heyer. that's the truth americans have to face. that's going to resolve our problems when we face the truth. there's a segment of the population that does not believe all men and women in america are created equal. that's the fundamental problem. >> matthew dowd, speaking my language with the reconstruction riff. thank you very much. i appreciate it. >> you are welcome. >>> impeachment managers publically call their first witness, donald j. trump. will we see the impeached former president testify at his own trial? that's next. do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy, even a term policy, for an immediate cash

host: our next guest serves as the special inspector general for afghanistan reconstruction. he is general john sopko. thank you for joining us. guest: thank you. host: can you remind our viewers in job, what specific role it has? guest: i am the special inspector general for afghanistan reconstruction. it is a long term. just call it the sigar without the c.

then while working hard during reconstruction for the white terror campaign hit so hard in the southhey just said were tired of dealing with this. they lost the political will allowing the south to begin the campaign of terror. cases like plessy versus ferguson the supreme court decision making segregation legal. everyone is complicit with all of society it is everywhere. some people seceded from the nation to create a slave republic and the north the didn't in fact they went in there to save the united states of america led by the us army that had 180,000 troops leading the way. there is plenty of bad blood to go around. >> it's important to note that grant sought to implement reconstruction in the bulk of the time of the presidency to prepare on - - to prove and sustainable with those with that determination that was a great feature. on the battlefield. >> once the southern states are back in the union and with those electoral votes in the house and in the senate it is a bit surprising political deals were cut and in fact that's how the names ended up on the basis because the namin

for many decades maybe the 18 eighties through the 19 sixties had developed a view that reconstruction was not a very good policy and had bad and deleterious effects on the country and that it was necessary for the countryce to and reconstruction in order for the healing between north and south after 700,000 casualties of the civil war so we can bring the country back together. look at mckinley for example, you can argue he concerned about the plight of african-americans in the south as the jim crow era wasar emerging and no question he was up to us about the whole situation. but there was an element of thinking of his policies at the national level and that political sensibility which was getting the country back together was his highest priority so that was a very patronizing view toward african-americans and their plight. he grew up in a home that was very abolitionist and his mother was firm in her views that slavery was a terrible evil and he was a military hero at 18 and courageous stories about him. there is a time when historians were suggesting the reconstruction was a blight

i think we are living through a third american reconstruction effort to reconstruct democracy so thatt is multiracial, multicultural. our first efforts were after the civil war. 1865 to 1877. we did achieve some racial progress. we had 1500 black elected officials. we had a freedmen's bureau. we had the creation of black churches and public schools, but we also institutionalized racial segregation rather quickly by the 1880's and 1890's. we did it through racial violence and public policy. our second reconstruction is the civil rights movement between 1954 and 1965. when we think about public school desegregation and the voting rights act and the civil rights act of 1964. there was again racial progress, but that was really quickly closed off when we think about 1968. the assassination of martin luther king jr., the assassination of bobby kennedy, the assassination of malcolm x. now, we have another effort. in a way, we are experiencing something we have never experienced before. we have so many white americans who are joining these protests. it is multiracial, multicultural. it is le

the department of justice was created in the midst of congressional reconstruction. and one of its first jobs was to bring the rule of law to the post confederate south where local law enforcement and juries refused to convict white supremacist terrorists, and the ku klux klan, under former confederate general nathan forrest was running roughshod, murdering people, intimidating them, using terroristic violence in an effort to destroy black enfranchise and reassert white supremacy. the doj was just one mechanism to counter that. there was also a bunch of legislation passed at the time, including the civil rights act, known as the ku klux klan act, which made it illegal to use force, intimidation, or threat to prevent government officials from discharging their duties because that's what the klan was doing. and the klan act also opened up civil liability for any entity that would try to do that. you could sue them. fast forward 150 years. in the wake of a violent insurrection by forces that attempted to deprive the infranchisement of 81 million voters, many of them afr