Printed below is an excerpt from Racism, Revolution, and Reaction, 1861–1877: The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction, by Peter Camejo. The title is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for October. It tells the history of the period known as Radical Reconstruction, following the U.S. civil war of 1861–65 through which the Southern slavocracy was crushed and millions of slaves were freed.

Immediately after the war most ex-slaves were forced into contract labor gangs. They organized resistance, winning support among layers of the labor movement in the North and, initially, sections of the industrial capitalists who were alarmed at the attempts by the former slaveholders to reassert their political influence. Out of these struggles, Radical Reconstruction regimes were established throughout the South, backed by the Union Army. The most advanced regimes adopted legislation barring racist discrimination, expanding suffrage and public education, and other progressive measures. The proletarianized ex-slaves fought for a radical land reform.

The defeat of Radical Reconstruction was engineered by the industrial ruling class, which feared the rise of a united working class in which Black and white artisans and industrial workers could come together as a powerful oppositional force, allied with the free working farmers. Copyright © 1976 by Pathfinder Press, reprinted by permission.
 

In all, fourteen Blacks would go to Washington as congressmen from six different Southern states, and two from Mississippi would enter the Senate. Several others were elected to Congress but were refused their seats on one pretext or another. Most of these representatives were ex-slaves. On the other hand, there was not a single Black from the North in the House until the 1920s and none in the Senate until 1966.

It is difficult to grasp the full revolutionary implications of this Black representation. No parallel exists in the United States today, there not being a single worker, much less a socialist, in the House or Senate. The election of Black legislators was testimony to the depth of the revolutionary changes unleashed by the Civil War. Even though some of them maintained moderate political positions they were, regardless of the rhetoric used, above all representatives of the oppressed nationality of Afro-Americans, a nationality composed almost entirely of laboring people.

The voice they raised in the halls of Congress was anomalous among the paid representatives of the Robber Barons. They spoke up for the Cherokees and other dispossessed Indians and for the hounded Chinese laborers in the West. They sought to increase the rights of women and argued for federal support to education, a concept that would not be accepted for another generation.

In the South the pressure and influence of Black officeholders resulted in a series of progressive reforms. Most important, of course, was the elimination of the Black Codes and the guaranteeing of juridical rights for Afro-Americans, including the right to serve on juries, hold office, speak, organize, and serve in the police and militias. Other important reforms were also achieved. An enormous demand went up from the Afro-American people for schools. There was more interest in education among the ex-slaves than among the poor whites, who were not caught up in such a profound social transformation as was the Black population.

General Pope, referring to his military district, which included Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, wrote in 1867: "It may be safely said that the marvelous progress made in the education of these people, aided by the noble charitable contributions of Northern societies and individuals, finds no parallel in the history of mankind. If continued, it must be by the same means, and if the masses of the white people exhibit the same indisposition to be educated that they do now, five years will have transferred intelligence and education, so far as the masses are concerned, to the colored people of this District."

By 1869 there were 9,000 teachers in the South instructing the children of ex-slaves. By the next year there were 4,300 schools with close to 250,000 Black children in attendance....

The first statewide free public schools in the South were established during Radical Reconstruction. The Black lawmakers sought schools for both Blacks and whites and preferred integrated schools. Integration for all schools was established by law in Louisiana and at the university level in other states. In most cases separate schools were established because most whites insisted on all-white schools before they would allow their children to attend. When schools of higher learning were integrated many whites withdrew.

New rights were granted to women during Reconstruction. The first divorce and property rights laws for women were passed. Better facilities for the care of the sick, blind, and insane were established. The judicial system and penitentiaries were modernized.

Albion W. Tourgee, a Union soldier who settled in North Carolina after the war and wrote A Fool’s Errand, the best-known historical novel in defense of Radical Reconstruction, summarized the achievements of those governments as follows: "They instituted a public school system in a realm where public schools had been unknown. They opened the ballot box and jury box to thousands of white men who had been debarred from them by a lack of earthly possessions. They introduced home rule in the South. They abolished the whipping post, and branding iron, the stocks and other barbarous forms of punishment which had up to that time prevailed. They reduced capital felonies from about twenty to two or three. In an age of extravagance they were extravagant in the sums appropriated for public works. In all that time no man’s rights of person were invaded under the forms of laws."

The governments under Radical Reconstruction were in many ways the most democratic the South has ever had up to the present day.  
 
 
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