The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), founded by Bryan Stevenson, released a new groundbreaking Report on the Era of Reconstruction and the violence that defined that period of time – an era from which our nation has yet to recover.

The report is about the legacy of racial violence during Reconstruction, the twelve years after slavery when after emancipation people were filled with hope for change.

It examines the horrific violence against Black people by white leaders and the rise of white supremacy destroying hopes for progress.

In decision after decision, the Court ceded control to the same white Southerners who used terror and violence to stop Black political participation, upheld laws and practices codifying racial hierarchy, and embraced a new constitutional order defined by “states’ rights.”

Violence, mass lynchings, and lawlessness enabled white Southerners to create a regime of white supremacy and Black disenfranchisement alongside a new economic order that continued to exploit Black labor.