8. CAPITOL MEN: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen by Philip Dray

Reconstruction was a time of idealism and sweeping change, as the victorious Union created citizenship rights for the freed slaves and granted the vote to black men. Sixteen black Southerners, elected to the U.S. Congress, arrived in Washington to advocate reforms such as public education, equal rights, land distribution, and the suppression of the Ku Klux Klan. In a grand narrative that traces the promising yet tragic arc of Reconstruction, Philip Dray follows these black representatives’ struggles, from the Emancipation Proclamation to the onset of Jim Crow, as they fought for social justice and helped realize the promise of a new nation.