The Impacts and Effects of Reconstruction in Texas - Extension Lesson

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Description

Overview

The period of Reconstruction was met with an increase in representation by African American men in both the national and state legislatures. During Radical Reconstruction, African American political participation was at an all-time high, but it was short lived due to increased violence and the political shift that resulted in Democratic party leadership in Texas for over a decade.

Following Reconstruction, African American political participation declined, and several African American appointed or elected officials stepped down, never to return to politics again. Many decades passed before anyone other than white male citizens were able to freely hold office or participate in the political process in America. As time progressed, citizens advocated for the protection of voting rights and political participation for minorities and women. Today we see diversity in representation across many levels of government.

This enrichment activity will allow students to investigate their own community’s leadership, to analyze the level of diversity in representation of various demographics (i.e. by race/ethnicity, gender, disability, etc.). The goal of this enrichment exercise is for students to understand how the post-Reconstruction political climate prevented political participation by non-white male citizens, but also to analyze the ways in which circumstances have evolved in their communities.

Essential Questions

  1. How did the post-Reconstruction political climate prevent or limit political participation by non-white male citizens??

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The Impacts and Effects of Reconstruction in Texas - Extension Lesson by UNT Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license .

Updates

The page was updated on 10/28/2024.

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