What the Black Man Wants
Frederick Douglass demands voting rights and civil equality for Black Americans in an 1865 speech.
![A portrait of Frederick Douglass, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/3a18122v.jpg?h=28b1f63e&itok=LuMCd-Xt)
What the Black Man Wants (en español)
In Spanish, Frederick Douglass demands voting rights and civil equality for Black Americans in an 1865 speech.
![A portrait of Frederick Douglass, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/3a18122v.jpg?h=28b1f63e&itok=LuMCd-Xt)
Statistics From the Civil War
This reading features statistics on the number of deaths during the Civil War.
![Ruins of a building and carriages.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Charleston_sc_1865.jpg?h=02857a37&itok=Qup7m3tC)
Statistics from the War (en español)
In Spanish, this reading features statistics on the number of deaths during the Civil War.
![Ruins of a building and carriages.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Charleston_sc_1865.jpg?h=02857a37&itok=Qup7m3tC)
W. E. B. Du Bois Reflects on the Purpose of History
W. E. B. Du Bois questions the way that Reconstruction was studied and taught in an excerpt from his 1935 book Black Reconstruction in America.
![A portrait of W.E.B. Du Bois, head-and-shoulders, facing slightly right.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/3a53178u.jpg?h=87584735&itok=bgkKYE0Q)
The Influence of "The Birth of a Nation"
The three-hour silent film The Birth of a Nation did “incalculable harm” to Black Americans by creating a justification for prejudice, racism, and discrimination for decades to follow.
![Member of Ku Klux Klan holding a torch on a horse.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/REC_12_The_Birth.jpg?h=da7ce804&itok=o8NJxzoX)
Klansmen Broke My Door Open
This reading contains the testimony of a victim of Ku Klux Klan violence.
![Engraving showing African American family in a humble home. Woman is cooking at the fireplace, man seated alongside, and three children. A masked man from Ku Klux Klan is aiming a rifle in doorway; two more masked figures also peek in.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-02/1872_visitofthekkk_FH21201.jpg?h=5b419f6c&itok=FjKUk8wf)
Klansmen Broke My Door Open (en español)
In Spanish, this reading contains the testimony of a victim of Ku Klux Klan violence.
![Engraving showing African American family in a humble home. Woman is cooking at the fireplace, man seated alongside, and three children. A masked man from Ku Klux Klan is aiming a rifle in doorway; two more masked figures also peek in.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-02/1872_visitofthekkk_FH21201.jpg?h=5b419f6c&itok=FjKUk8wf)
Letter from Jourdon Anderson: A Freedman Writes His Former Master
Jourdon Anderson, a formerly enslaved person, responds to a request from his former master to return to work for him.
![A portrait of an African American family seated on a lawn.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/08762v.jpg?h=eaa4a767&itok=KrJAig0D)
Letter from Jourdon Anderson: A Freedman Writes His Former Master (en español)
In Spanish, Jourdon Anderson, a formerly enslaved person, responds to a request from his former master to return to work for him.
![A portrait of an African American family seated on a lawn.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/08762v.jpg?h=eaa4a767&itok=KrJAig0D)
A Lifeline for Democracy
In her 2005 commencement speech at the University of Vermont, Ruth Simmons describes experiences that helped her escape the poverty and discrimination of her youth to become the president of Brown University.
![Book cover of American flag with faces over it.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Reconstruction_cover_large.jpg?h=51bee232&itok=yY8xN3AK)