18 Comments

Your very informative article received twice as many comments here as in the Washington Post.

Expand full comment
author

I appreciated this one:

"Dr. Levin's book on the "persistent" myth of black Confederates was one that just didn't need to be written in the first place."

:-)

Expand full comment

I thought about writing a reply but didn’t. As an educator you would know better than I would, but does the lack of comments in the WP say anything about the interest of the public in history? What are you seeing?

Expand full comment
author

I don't know if it says much of anything. Most of the articles on the WP's Made by History page received very few, if any, comments. I think part of the problem is that the WP doesn't do a very good job promoting these articles. I rarely see them on the front page of the online edition.

Expand full comment

Great article!

Expand full comment
author

Thanks, Lyle.

Expand full comment

Great article!

Expand full comment
author

Thank you, Richard.

Expand full comment

Mahone and the readjusters are fascinating. Are there good books on the latter? Baggett's Scalawags has one brief mention of them. The impact of Readjusters on black schooling is looked at in Hilary Green's Educational Reconstruction.

Expand full comment
author

I highly recommend Hilary's book.

You will want to take a loot at Jane Dailey's book, Before Jim Crow: The Politics of Race in Postemancipation Virginia. It is, in my mind, the best book on the Readjusters.

Expand full comment

I just read this in the WP, but thought I’d comment here.

The story of William Mahone and the Readjuster Party was a big takeaway for me from your book, “Remembering the Battle of the Crater.” It’s history well worth learning about, along with exploring why political equality didn’t last. I’ve had these conversations with my 9 year old grandson. He gets it.

Congratulations on your op-ed piece.

Expand full comment
author

I've been fascinated by Mahone and the Readjusters ever since I first read about them in 2002. Thanks for reading, Laura.

Expand full comment

This also got picked up by Emerging Civil War on their Facebook page.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks for the heads up.

Expand full comment

Something interesting that I came across a few years ago was that one of my grandparent's friends was a descendant of a black Virginia politician named Edward Bland. Edward was a Republican who served in the Virginia House of Delegates and during his time in office supported the Readjusters. Here is a link to a biographical sketch about Edward Bland: https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/bland-edward-d-1848-1927/

Expand full comment
author

Thanks for the link. I came across his name while researching my first book. There are so many interesting Black political leaders that came out of this movement.

Expand full comment

Whenever I think historically about Virginia's public education, 1956's massive resistance to Brown vs. Board of Education always comes to mind. Thanks for enlightening me. Did not know this.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks for reading, Gary.

Expand full comment