Why are the 1960s called the Second Reconstruction?

The term Second Reconstruction first appeared in "The Political Legacy of Reconstruction," a 1957 journal article published in the Journal of Negro Education by the historian C. Vann Woodward. read more

For this reason, the 1960s are often referred to as "Second Reconstruction," because the 1960s saw the dismantling of Jim Crow segregation in the Southern United States, whereas the "First Reconstruction" saw the surrender of the Southern Confederacy and the dismantling of the plantation slave system it upheld. read more

The broad period from the end of World War II until the late 1960s, often referred to as the “Second Reconstruction,” consisted of a grass-roots civil rights movement coupled with gradual but progressive actions by the Presidents, the federal courts, and Congress to provide full political rights for African Americans and to begin to redress longstanding economic and social inequities. read more

The civil rights movement (also known as the African-American civil rights movement, American civil rights movement and other terms) was a decades-long movement with the goal of securing legal rights for African Americans that other Americans already held. read more