Website for the PBS mini-series on the Reconstruction Era. Includes all episodes and a timeline of events.

THE surrender of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House effectively ended the Civil War. Preoccupied with the challenges of our own time, Americans probably devote little attention to Reconstruction, the turbulent era that followed the conflict. This is unfortunate, for if any historical period deserves the label “relevant,” it is Reconstruction.

The pervasiveness of white-supremacist ideology in academia gave license to Jim Crow efforts for decades after the Civil War.

Five common fallacies that Americans still tell themselves about the Reconstruction Era.

During Reconstruction, true citizenship finally seemed in reach for black Americans. Then their dreams were dismantled.

Reconstruction after the Civil War was America's first attempt at an interracial democracy. Eric Foner explains why Reconstruction--and why it failed--is critical to understanding the civil rights movement of the twentieth century.

When Congress passed the first Reconstruction Acts, paving the way for Confederate states to rejoin the Union after the war, many also asked who belonged in the country and what rights they would have. So, in this episode, Ed, Nathan and Joanne explore the central questions of the Reconstruction Era.