Talk:Reconstruction era

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Reconstruction era was nominated as a History good article, but it did not meet the good article criteria at the time (June 19, 2017). There are suggestions on the review page for improving the article. If you can improve it, please do; it may then be renominated.

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Section sizes

Section size for Reconstruction era (86 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	8,054	8,054
Dating	5,830	5,830
Background	1,654	12,941
Abolition of slavery and social reform	3,387	3,387
Economic devastation	5,036	5,036
Legal reconstruction	2,864	2,864
Timeline	4,025	4,025
Restoring the South to the Union	2,547	20,860
1865	2,742	2,742
1866	2,911	2,911
1867	1,599	1,599
Suffrage	8,789	8,789
Southern Treaty Commission	2,272	2,272
Lincoln's presidential Reconstruction	70	20,585
Preliminary events	3,693	3,693
Gradual emancipation and compensation	1,331	1,331
Colonization	1,952	1,952
Installation of military governors	2,120	2,120
Emancipation Proclamation	1,912	1,912
Lincoln's 10% plan	2,188	2,188
Legalization of slave marriages	1,564	1,564
Freedmen's Bureau	2,943	2,943
Bans color discrimination	482	482
February 1865 peace conference	1,390	1,390
Historical legacy debated	940	940
Johnson's presidential Reconstruction	6,194	21,391
Freedmen and the enactment of Black Codes	7,772	7,772
Moderate responses	3,851	3,851
Johnson's vetoes	3,574	3,574
Congressional Reconstruction	2,966	20,527
Constitutional amendments	1,869	1,869
Statutes	1,082	1,082
Military Reconstruction	4,869	4,869
State constitutional conventions: 1867–1869	4,800	4,800
Election of 1868	4,941	4,941
Grant's presidential Reconstruction	258	10,817
Effective civil rights executive	1,368	1,368
Final three Reconstruction states admitted	1,444	1,444
Department of Justice created	574	574
Enforcement Acts (1870–1871)	2,319	2,319
Prosecution of the Ku Klux Klan	1,837	1,837
Amnesty Act of 1872	554	554
Civil Rights Act of 1875	819	819
Countered election fraud	791	791
National support of Reconstruction declines	853	853
African American officeholders	9,233	9,233
Social and economic factors	33	30,379
Religion	7,901	7,901
Public schools	4,500	4,500
Railroad subsidies and payoffs	1,963	1,963
The Southern country store	5,665	5,665
Taxation during Reconstruction	5,023	5,023
National financial issues	4,595	4,595
Culture	699	699
Ending Reconstruction	26	42,241
Congressional investigation into Reconstruction states 1872	1,954	1,954
Southern Democrats	8,029	8,029
Redemption 1873–1877	459	7,564
Republicans split nationally: election of 1872	2,641	2,641
The Republican coalition splinters in the South	4,464	4,464
Democrats try a "New Departure"	3,104	3,104
Panic of 1873	1,876	1,876
Violence	13,104	13,104
Election of 1876	1,073	1,073
Hayes ends Reconstruction	5,511	5,511
Legacy and historiography	2,850	37,630
Dunning School, 1900s–1920s	998	998
Revisionists and Beardians, 1930s–1940s	7,208	7,208
Black historians	1,637	1,637
Neo-abolitionists	5,724	5,724
Dating the end of the Reconstruction era	2,524	2,524
Economic role of race	1,544	1,544
The "failure" issue	4,898	4,898
Historiographical Interpretations	1,547	1,547
In popular culture	4,457	4,457
In education	4,243	4,243
See also	233	233
References	15	99
Notes	48	48
Citations	36	36
Bibliography	79	26,240
Scholarly secondary sources	18,692	18,692
Historiography	2,754	2,754
Yearbooks	1,361	1,361
Primary sources	3,354	3,354
External links	40	40
Total	271,125	271,125

Wiki Education assignment: Shaping of the Modern World

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 January 2025 and 21 May 2025. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Brooklyn.history1101 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by DocBui (talk) 21:19, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Reconstruction Overview

The Reconstruction era was a period in United States history and Southern United States history that followed the American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – April 9, 1865) and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the abolition of slavery and the reintegration of the eleven former Confederate States into the United States. During this period, three amendments were added to the United States Constitution to grant citizenship and equal civil rights to the newly freed slaves. To circumvent these legal achievements, the former Confederate states imposed poll taxes and literacy tests and engaged in terrorism to intimidate and control African Americans and to discourage or prevent them from voting. 98.185.5.73 (talk) 12:47, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Needs to be split into two articles: Overview & Timeline?

I know this is piling-on from other comments above ... but this article needs to include a good overview to readers who may know little or nothing about US history.

To give an example; I'm working on Atlanta Compromise article, and needed a couple of sentences (with sources) about how reconstruction benefited African Americans (right to vote, etc). I came here and gave up; I ended up going to Google and hunting down sources on my own. I'm not complaining, but ideally, this article would have contained a good overview that I could utilize.

Here is an online Encyclopedia Britannica article that illustrates a good "overview level" of detail ... the level that this article could use:

Foner, Eric (May 27, 2025). "Reconstruction". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved May 7, 2025.

I understand Reconstruction era is not an easy article to write/edit. And it is probably not wise to delete any of the (accurate) material from the existing timeline sections. Maybe it should be split into two articles: an overview article, and a timeline article?

I appreciate all the hard work that has gone into this article, and I hope my suggesions are not taken negatively. Noleander (talk) 19:21, 8 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Short description

I feel the current short description [Military occupation of southern US states from 1865 to 1877] is too narrow to describe Reconstruction, for the article more than the military occupation. It also violates Wikipedia:SD40

I feel a description like "Era after American Civil War (1865–1877)" would be better at describing the article. Roasted (talk) 18:30, 28 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That follows what the first line says. Go for it. 〜 Adflatuss • talk 23:35, 28 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]