2026 marks the 150thth anniversary of the contested election of 1876. Three renowned scholars join to discuss the election, its aftermath, and how we think about Reconstruction and define its endpoint: Robert D. Bland, associate professor of history at the University of Tennessee; Pamela Brandwein, professor of political science at the University of Michigan; and Gregory P. Downs, professor of history at the University of California-Davis. They also discuss a written roundtable by The Journal of the Civil War Era titled “Beyond 1877: Rethinking Postbellum Republican Party Politics and Plotting New Endpoints for the Long Reconstruction,” which explores the ongoing debate over where historians set Reconstruction’s endpoint. Tom Donnelly, lead scholar at the National Constitution Center, moderates.
This program is presented in partnership with The Journal of the Civil War Era.
Video
Participants
Robert D. Bland is associate professor of history at the University of Tennessee. He is the author of Requiem for Reconstruction: Black Countermemory and the Legacy of the Lowcountry’s Lost Political Generation, and associate editor of The Journal of the Civil War Era.
Pamela Brandwein is professor of political science at the University of Michigan and professor of law through a courtesy appointment at the University of Michigan Law School. She is the author of Rethinking the Judicial Settlement of Reconstruction and Reconstructing Reconstruction: The Supreme Court and the Production of Historical Truth.
Gregory P. Downs is professor of history at the University of California-Davis and serves as co-editor of The Journal of the Civil War Era. He is the author of After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War and The Second American Revolution: The Civil War Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic. Downs partnered with historian Kate Masur to develop the National Park Service’s Theme Study on Reconstruction.
Tom Donnelly is lead scholar at the National Constitution Center and a law professor at the University of Richmond. Prior to joining the Center in 2016, he served as counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center, as a Climenko Fellow and lecturer on law at Harvard Law School, and as a law clerk for Judge Thomas Ambro on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Additional Resources
- “Beyond 1877: Rethinking Postbellum Republican Party Politics and Plotting New Endpoints for the Long Reconstruction,” The Journal of the Civil War Era (December 2026)
- Reconstruction and America’s “Second Founding,” Constitution 101, National Constitution Center
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