Review: Black Reconstruction in America by W. E. B. Du Bois
This summer I read Henry Louis Gates’s book Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow. It was really good but after I finished it I still wanted to learn more about Reconstruction. Gates in his book mentioned that the two books that shaped his views on the Reconstruction period were W.E.B. Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction in America and Rayford Logan’s The Betrayal of the Negro. I decided to buy both and started with the oldest book published in 1935.
Du Bois published Black Reconstruction in America (BRIA) 85 years ago. At the time it was a monumental achievement, 85 years later it is still very much so. Du Bois wrote this work, with the help of a $6,250 grant ($109,492 in 2019 dollars), as a direct response to the Dunning School’s view of the period of Reconstruction (1865–1876). The Dunning School held racist and negative views of Reconstruction; its scholars called it a failure and blamed its lack of success on Black people. Du Bois’s book challenges this faulty school of thought.
Here are some of my thoughts on BRIA:
- BRIA begins by explicitly stating that slavery was the cause of the Civil War, and uses primary documents from the time to make this fact clear.
- Throughout the book Du Bois continuously comes back to his belief that the Black and White worker should have united against the capitalist planter class and that poor Whites decided not to do that because their whiteness was more important to them than their class. Also the White elite drilled into them that their whiteness made them better than Blacks. Some poor Whites did align with Blacks during the Populist movement of the 1880s/1890s, but Du Bois believed that effort was too little too late. As I read this, I found it interesting to see how much that dynamic has not changed much.
- The book contains many quotes from primary sources, so much so that the reader will noticed that full pages are direct quotations from notable leaders at the time (i.e. Thaddeus Stevens, Carl Schurz, Abraham Lincoln, Charles Sumner, Rutherford Hayes, lesser known Black officeholders, etc.) Quotes on the importance of voting and equality resonated with me, such as this one:
“There is no power on earth or in hell that can deprive the black man of his right to vote.” -Thomas Bayne, Black Delegate to 1868 Virginia Constitutional Convention
- Du Bois does a great job of showing Lincoln’s complexities, Lincoln was not only the Great Emancipator but he also advocated for colonization and segregation rather than full blown equality. On the flip side, Lincoln also supported education and suffrage for Blacks in some Southern states like Louisiana.
- The Black Codes that were implemented after the Civil War was a legal form of slavery; Du Bois shows that even Dunning agreed that the Codes discriminated against the newly freed people.
- Chapter 8 “The Transubstantiation of a Poor White” is probably one of the most interesting chapters in the book. In it Du Bois shows how Andrew Johnson’s views changed from being a poor White who hated the Southern planter aristocracy before the Civil War, to being their strongest defender once he became President, all because the former planters flattered him. Throughout his tenure Johnson was staunchly against Black suffrage.
- The book also covers the rise of the Southern Conventions in 1867-1868, which were established by federal law and whose purpose was to adopt new constitutions in order for the Southern states to officially be readmitted into the Union. These conventions wrote constitutions that “provided for equal civil rights” and “established universal suffrage”.
- The next fascinating set of chapters were Chs.10–13 which covers how each Southern and Border state reconstructed their governments after the Civil War. Many of the delegates who wrote and voted on the new constitutions were Black. In these chapters, Du Bois counters the Dunning school myths that Blacks were in complete control of the governments and that state funds were misused by them. Du Bois does acknowledge that Black leaders took bribes at the time but states they only did it because they were poor and ignorant as a result of slavery. Du Bois in turn praises the Black legislators of the South using primary sources that show they were honorable public servants. As I read these chapters I continued to be amazed as to how many Black legislators in this period of time were former slaves just three or four years earlier, many who could not read or write at the time that they held power. Du Bois argues that they were ordinary men doing extraordinary things. They were not primarily responsible for the corruption that occurred during this period, which was mostly the fault of White leaders. Du Bois is very persuasive when he shares how the corruption narrative changed overtime. The original narrative was that Northern and Southern White men were the culprits and that Blacks were used as tools; however when the planters and poor Whites gained power after Reconstruction the corruption blame was placed solely at the hands of the Black leaders. The White leaders then used this new narrative as the rationale for stripping political power from Blacks in the South.
- Another major achievement that Black Reconstruction leaders made was the creation of the Southern public school system which did not exist before the Civil War, even Dunning agreed it was a success. Chapter 15 covers how this system was founded across the Southern states during their constitutional conventions. Some states established integrated schools while others had segregated schools. It was really interesting to learn that it cost more money to have segregated schools rather than integrated schools. Segregated schools also hurt both White and Black children, although Black children’s education suffered more.
- Du Bois shows that Reconstruction ended in the 1870s through White supremacist violence and “real” election/voter fraud against Blacks. I found Du Bois’s explanation for racial hatred among members of the White mob very telling, he said that it existed because the poor White was concerned about their status in society and were economically anxious. Again I say, has anything changed?
- At times this book can be repetitive and may probably be too long for today’s average reader, it’s over 700 pages. I think a concise abridged version of this book would be beneficial to interested readers.
Overall, Du Bois argues that Reconstruction could have brought much more equality if it had not been ended abruptly by White Supremacists, if Blacks had been given more land, and if the poor White worker had aligned themselves with the Black worker instead of feeling threatened by them. At times Du Bois seems to be asking where America would be in 1935 if things had worked out ok. I read this book in 2020 asking the same question. Where would we be today on the issues of race and civil rights if we got it right the first time?
Ultimately, BRIA is a fascinating history of a period of time that is seldom taught well in school. BRIA is one of those classics where you see recurring themes in our current moment. Du Bois’s magnum opus must be read by those who want a more accurate history of the Reconstruction era rather than the “propaganda” promoted by the Dunning School of scholars.
If you would like to read this book, but reading a 700+ page tome sounds intimidating and daunting then please check out The Readin Series, this collaboration of thespians recently finished an online marathon reading of BRIA.
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