Films On Demand - Abolition: Broken Promises

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For most African-Americans, the end of slavery did little to improve their lives in post-Civil War America. Both Northerners and Southerners refused to accept them as equals, and in many cases looked the other way while their rights were regularly abused on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. This program presents a grim picture of the black experience after slavery as seen through the eyes of those who experienced it firsthand and of their families. Topics include the shortcomings of Reconstruction, the establishment of the Ku Klux Klan, the failure of the post-war land-distribution act, the deliberately cultivated image of black males as criminals and rapists, and the perpetuation of the Jim Crow laws well into the 1950s. Original BBC broadcast title: Sold Down the River. (51 minutes)

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Copyright date: ©1992

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