The Unfinished Work of Reconstruction
When the Civil War ended, residents watched from a hillside as the retreating Confederate army set fire to their own capital. What followed was a brief but transformative era known as Reconstruction. The 13th Amendment ended slavery; the 14th made constitutional rights enforceable for every American; and the 15th protected voting rights of males regardless of race. The federal government also established the Freedmen's Bureau to build the social foundations of formerly enslaved people through investments in education, healthcare, and fair labor. Those structural precedents became the foundation for the civil rights protections and public institutions that shape American life today.
But when Reconstruction ended, the forces of white supremacy reclaimed their power through Jim Crow laws and erected monuments to Confederate leaders that would stand for over 130 years. Forced by segregation into the neighborhood of Jackson Ward, Richmond's Black community built one of the great centers of Black entrepreneurship and culture in America.
That vitality was not allowed to last, as federal policies including redlining deliberately starved the neighborhood of capital and investment. Then in the 1950s and 60s, highway construction carved through the heart of Jackson Ward and over the burial grounds of enslaved Africans in Shockoe Bottom. The consequences have compounded, with inequality around food, housing, education, and healthcare carrying centuries of marginalization into the present.
Community leaders today are picking up the unfinished work of Reconstruction — restoring the health of the land, tending to the wellbeing of its people, and unifying across faiths and cultures toward lasting change.
Join the Movement
Reconstructing Richmond is more than a documentary — it's a movement. It's about culture, community, repair, and reconstruction in real time. Follow the project and join our email list to get on-the-ground updates, invitations to community gatherings, and ways to be part of the work as it unfolds.