Stumbling on a forgotten Reconstruction tragedy, in a forgotten corner of Louisiana 

A former slave urges Congress to grant black Americans the vote.

“Having converted the loyal blacks from slaves into the condition of citizens of the United States, there can be no reason or justice or policy in allowing them to be made, in localities recently Rebel, the subjects of whites who have but just purged themselves from the guilt of treason.”

Can Harold Ford become the first black senator from the old Confederacy since Reconstruction?