Epilogue Summary and Analysis

The Epilogue wraps up some of the facts as time moved on. The Ku Klux Klan exists today but the last photograph in the book is Obama. Bartoletti is telling the reader that even a black man can live the American dream today.

Every time there was an election, there was violence in the South. New white supremacist groups chose different names and kept the black man's vote banned. Some of the groups called themselves Rifle Clubs, the Red Shirts, the White League, the White Liners, and the White Caps. By 1876 everyone was tired of Reconstruction and wanted things to go back to normal. White Northerners and White Southerners wanted to be friends again. The election in 1876 was too close to call. They put Rutherford B. Hayes in because he promised to leave the South alone.

After Reconstruction had ended, the...