Walter D. Greason, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the Department of Educational Counseling and Leadership, is the featured speaker for a virtual lunch and learn session hosted by The Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education at Brookdale Community College on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 11:30 a.m.
Preregistration is required to attend Greason’s presentation, “Racism & Reconstruction in New Jersey.” The session will examine the Reconstruction Era, generally thought to be the brief period of time between 1865 and 1877 when Federal troops occupied the South, Black Americans represented Southern communities in the U.S. Congress, and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution suggested equality between the races was in reach.
Greason argues that is an incomplete narrative. The Ku Klux Klan and its counterparts were waging a campaign of political violence across the country to re-establish white supremacy. Northern states like New Jersey were not exempt from the KKK and, later, Jim Crow; in fact, New Jersey has been a battleground state for racial equality since before the Civil War. Greason will contextualize this history and the waves of political reconstruction that have shaped New Jersey’s race relations. He will also discuss the future of racism and equality in our state.