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Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow
Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow | Henry Louis Gates
9 posts | 13 read | 21 to read
A profound new rendering of the struggle by African-Americans for equality after the Civil War and the violent counter-revolution that resubjugated them, as seen through the prism of the war of images and ideas that have left an enduring racist stain on the American mind. The abolition of slavery in the aftermath of the Civil War is a familiar story, as is the civil rights revolution that transformed the nation after World War II. But the century in between remains a mystery: if emancipation sparked "a new birth of freedom" in Lincoln's America, why was it necessary to march in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s America? In this new book, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of our leading chroniclers of the African-American experience, seeks to answer that question in a history that moves from the Reconstruction Era to the "nadir" of the African-American experience under Jim Crow, through to World War I and the Harlem Renaissance. Through his close reading of the visual culture of this tragic era, Gates reveals the many faces of Jim Crow and how, together, they reinforced a stark color line between white and black Americans. Bringing a lifetime of wisdom to bear as a scholar, filmmaker, and public intellectual, Gates uncovers the roots of structural racism in our own time, while showing how African Americans after slavery combatted it by articulating a vision of a "New Negro" to force the nation to recognize their humanity and unique contributions to America as it hurtled toward the modern age. The story Gates tells begins with great hope, with the Emancipation Proclamation, Union victory, and the liberation of nearly 4 million enslaved African-Americans. Until 1877, the federal government, goaded by the activism of Frederick Douglass and many others, tried at various turns to sustain their new rights. But the terror unleashed by white paramilitary groups in the former Confederacy, combined with deteriorating economic conditions and a loss of Northern will, restored "home rule" to the South. The retreat from Reconstruction was followed by one of the most violent periods in our history, with thousands of black people murdered or lynched and many more afflicted by the degrading impositions of Jim Crow segregation. An essential tour through one of America's fundamental historical tragedies, Stony the Road is also a story of heroic resistance, as figures such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells fought to create a counter-narrative, and culture, inside the lion's mouth. As sobering as this tale is, it also has within it the inspiration that comes with encountering the hopes our ancestors advanced against the longest odds.
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bill4earth
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This is a phenomenal book about the reconstruction era in our country and Jim Crow. Great pictures from the time period as well. Really immerses you in the struggle of minorities in this country during some of our darkest days.

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ClairesReads
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A clear, reasoned, thoughtful analysis of the failures of Reconstruction. Gates Jr. explores not only how, but why these failures occurred and in doing so shines a light on systemic racism in America, and the way it is embedded in the country‘s history.

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Nitpickyabouttrains
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A deep look at a part of American history I hadn‘t previously looked at a lot.

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violabrain
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The Reconstruction era is something that I (and probably many Americans) don‘t know much about. This book is a really eye-opening and necessary look at that part of our history.

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crazyspine
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There's a lot of fascinating information in this book but I think everyone should know, but it's not the most accessible book in the sense that its written like a traditional historical text. I had to do a lot of rereading to understand. That being said, it was worth it.

Econaghan Definitely worth the read! 4y
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sarahljensen
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Important history we should all be more familiar with

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Nebklvr
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Mehso-so

To my shame,i know virtually nothing about the reconstruction period. There was tons of info and rabbit holes to pursue but I chose the wrong format for this book. I needed to take notes which isn‘t easy when you are toodling down the road. It sometimes felt like a scattershot approach to the topic.

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crhealey
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New notebook, a face mask and a library book are my ingredients for sick day recovery. Happy to go see my students tomorrow and tell them what I‘ve learned from reading this. Probably should have started sooner 😂 #teachersoflitsy #middleschoolgermsgalore

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bookwrm526
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I really enjoyed this book, but it was a lot more literary theory than history, so it wasn‘t exactly what I was expecting. This was part of my plan to educate myself about this period in history about which I was taught very little in school, even in my history undergraduate. I only wish Dr. Gates had read the audiobook himself!