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Reconstruction: South Carolina and the Nation After the Civil War

The first black U.S. senator and first black House members were elected by Southern states during Reconstruction.
Library of Congress
The first black U.S. senator and first black House members were elected by Southern states during Reconstruction.

Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., has said, "Reconstruction is one of the most important and consequential chapters in American history. It is also among the most overlooked, misunderstood and misrepresented." Gates' new four-part television series for PBS, Reconstruction: America after the Civil War begins it run on April 9 on SCETV.

For an overview of this era in American history, Dr. Walter Edgar is joined by a fellow historian, Dr. J. Brent Morris, Director of the University of South Carolina Beaufort's Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era, for a discussion of Reconstruction and its aftermath, beginning with the hopeful moment of war's end and emancipation in 1865 and carrying through to 1915, when the nation was fully entrenched in Jim Crow segregation.

All Stations: Fri, Apr 05, 12 pm | News & Talk Stations: Sun, Apr 07, 4 pm

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.