Bernard Powers

You live out on farms and your nearest neighbors could be miles away.

So your ability to receive aid and protection and even to band together.

is much more limited in the countryside because the population is much more diffuse.

The issue really then is how does the North and how do Blacks

Republican politicians in Washington, in Congress, respond?

Well, they respond with hope.

They hope that the situation will get better.

But unfortunately, they don't respond with enough action.

Ackerman appeared before Congress and said, this is what you do.

You've just passed the 14th Amendment.

The 14th Amendment says that everybody born in the United States is a citizen.

If you're a citizen, you've got rights.

And so black folks are citizens.

When the Ku Klux Klan just breaks into houses, terrorizes people, lynches people, murders people, steals from people, why don't you make those federal crimes, try them in federal court as civil rights violations?

Grant wanted to reconcile with the South, and so he needed a Southerner in the cabinet.

And Ackerman was indeed the only Southerner ever to serve in the Reconstruction cabinet.

He comes in and he's interested in one thing.

He's interested in getting rid of the Ku Klux Klan, and that's all he wants to do.

He's not interested in anything else.

Hello, my name is Imani Rosario.