BLACK RECONSTRUCTION

Here's the groundwork on which Johnson's little book should stand (see report page 282), a scholarly piece of research into the history of the part the Negro played in the abortive attempt to reconstruct democracy between the years 1860 and 1880. A survey of the situation of the Negro prior to the War between the States, an upsetting of some of the sentimentalized ideas of the position of the Negro under slavery, a study of the part played by the Negro in the war itself, and then an exhaustive searching into every aspect of the post-war conditions, -- the fight for the vote, the problems in the states where the Negro vote over-balanced the white vote, the contrasting situations in various states, the tragedy of the Northern interference and the carpetbaggers and land grabbers. The whole period a blot on our history, and a tragedy for the Negro people. The market -- all interested in going to the bottom of the Negro problem today.