Reconstruction Video Reflection

The Reconstruction Era Documentary showed that even with all of the progress that the United States had made, there were still so many people that were stuck in their ways. Racism is a thing that we are still dealing with today, and it is something that we shouldn’t be dealing with. During the reconstruction era, black people were able to sit in the House of Representatives, allowed to be in the Senate, able to get jobs, and so many more opportunities were given to them. While there were so many progressive steps made for black people, there was still so much racism and discrimination happening in society. “After 250 years of slavery, white southerners could not quite accept 4 million former slaves as equal members of their society.” (Reconstruction Era Documentary Pt.1) This quote is from the documentary and it describes the violence and hate shown towards black people during the reconstruction era, which was supposed to be an era of change, togetherness, and acceptance. 

            The Mother Emanuel Massacre was one of the things that stood out to me the most in the documentary. The massacre happened in Charleston and nine black people were killed. They were shot during a Church service which in my opinion is very messed up. Church is supposed to be a place of worship, peace, and celebration of faith. It is supposed to be a safe place and the fact that a shooting would take place in a Church shows how violent the Reconstruction Era really was. The Church where the shooting occurred was one of the oldest black Churches in Charleston and the disrespect the shooter showed was wrong. The violence was unbelievable during this time period and while it was harmful, it also sparked the Civil Rights Act and the peaceful protests that led to the disappearance of discrimination.