Make Good the Promises

“A powerful and illuminating exploration that shows the Black struggle during the Reconstruction era for a multiracial democracy.” —Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award–winning author

With a Foreword by Pulitzer Prize–winning author and historian Eric Fonerand a preface by veteran museum director and historian Spencer Crew

More than a century has passed since the revolutionary political, social, and economic movement known as Reconstruction, yet its profound consequences reverberate in our lives today. Make Good the Promises explores five distinct yet intertwined legacies of Reconstruction—Liberation, Violence, Repair, Place, and Belief—to reveal their lasting impact on modern society. It is the story of Frederick Douglass, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Hiram Revels, Ida B. Wells, and scores of other Black men and women who reshaped a nation—and of the persistence of white supremacy and the perpetuation of the injustices of slavery continued by other means and codified in state and federal laws.

With contributions by leading scholars, and illustrated with eighty images from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture exhibit, Make Good the Promises shows how Black Lives Matter, #SayHerName, antiracism, and other current movements for repair find inspiration from the lessons of Reconstruction. It touches on questions critical then and now: What is the meaning of freedom and equality? What does it mean to be an American? Powerful and eye-opening, it is a reminder that history is far from past; it lives within each of us and shapes our world and who we are.

“This beautiful collection reveals why Reconstruction belongs at the center of Black history and, indeed, all of American history.” —Kate Masur, author of Until Justice Be Done