Experience the aftermath of the Civil War — a bewildering, exhilarating and terrifying time. African Americans who had played a crucial role in the war now grapple with the terms and implications of Reconstruction and their hard-won freedom.

Discover how post-Civil War America was a new world. Learn how African Americans made political, social and economic progress in the face of violence.

Explore the rise of Jim Crow and the undermining of Reconstruction’s legal and political legacy.

See African Americans in the 1900s using artistic expression against revisionist history and racism.