Part 1, Chapter 3 Of Rumors and Revelations Summary

The Confederate armies surrendered in the spring of 1865. On July 4th, millions of freed people claimed access to public space previously denied to them. They held processions of black troops, hundreds of black school children, and black representatives of urban trades. They marched past the homes of former prominent white officials and through public squares. Although the ceremonies differed, they all symbolized the reconstituted nation. These same political visions and agendas would sweep through much of the urban South during the months of 1865. Mass meetings and small gatherings proclaimed a new black political presence. They called for assemblies, introduced leaders, and protested discriminatory treatment. The initiatives that developed were fed by the flow of black migrants and by the institutional networks that free people of color and slaves had been building over the...