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Articles on Reconstruction

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Donald Trump at a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa, on Dec. 19, 2023. Kamil Krzaczysnki/AFP via Getty Images

Trump barred from Colorado ballot – now what?

A historian and legal scholar of a key part of the US Constitution explains what happens now that the Colorado Supreme Court has ruled Trump cannot be on the state’s presidential ballots.
Special counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on an indictment against former U.S. President Donald Trump on Aug. 1, 2023. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

A brief history of the Ku Klux Klan Acts: 1870s laws to protect Black voters, ignored for decades, now being used against Trump

One of the charges against Donald Trump dates back to the 1870s and was designed to give the federal government the power to ensure states held free and fair elections.
Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, who fought for the Union army during the Civil War, stands in uniform for a photo. Heritage Images/ Hulton Archive

US Army Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas’ journey from enslaver to Union officer to civil rights defender

A Southerner, Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas was a racist enslaver before the Civil War. But he fought for the Union because he prioritized his oath to defend the Constitution over state interests.
A Black man and his son leave a polling location in Atlanta after casting a vote in the Georgia primary election on May 24, 2022. Jessica McGowan/Getty Images

Georgia’s GOP overhauled the state’s election laws in 2021 – and critics argue the target was Black voter turnout, not election fraud

In a state where elections have turned on Black voters, the recent GOP overhaul of Georgia election laws has many voting rights activists and Democrats concerned that turnout may be affected.
Former Vice President Mike Pence is seen presiding over the counting of the votes on Jan. 6, 2021, during a hearing of the House January 6 committee in Washington, D.C., on June 16, 2022. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Jan. 6 hearings highlight problems with certification of presidential elections and potential ways to fix them

The attempt by Donald Trump’s supporters to reverse the 2020 presidential election results shows the need to update the nation’s landmark law for counting presidential votes.
Emancipation Day celebration, June 19, 1900, held in ‘East Woods’ on East 24th St. in Austin, Texas. Austin History Center

Juneteenth celebrates just one of the United States’ 20 emancipation days – and the history of how emancipated people were kept unfree needs to be remembered, too

Known as Juneteenth in Texas, Emancipation Days symbolized America’s attempt to free the enslaved across the nation. But those days were unable to prevent new forms of economic slavery.
Vice President Mike Pence reads the final electoral vote counts declaring Joe Biden the next U.S. president during a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 7, 2021. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

The Electoral Count Act of 1887 is showing its age – here’s how to help Congress certify a presidential election with more certainty

Concerned about problems in counting Electoral College votes that determine the next president, lawmakers are considering changes to the Electoral Count Act. What is the act, and what’s wrong with it?
A caricaturist for The Bystander captures the captain of the Oxford men’s hockey team during a match in Kent, in 1923 Smith Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Housing shortages and crowded classes: how life on campus changed after the first world war

Post-war government support saw ex-servicemen head to university by the tens of thousands. Their distinct perspective – and their numbers – shaped 1920s student life
The Proud Boys outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

US Capitol protesters, egged on by Trump, are part of a long history of white supremacists hearing politicians’ words as encouragement

The protests that ended in the storming of the US Capitol included members of white supremacy groups, the latest example of such groups being encouraged by politicians to challenge government.

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