When Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant after the Battle of Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, the South’s defeat in the Civil War had been all but assured. But as author Kidada E.

W.E.B. Du Bois, pictured in 1949, called Reconstruction “the finest effort to achieve democracy for the working millions which this world had ever seen.” He also saw it as a failure. (AP) Review by ...

Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, says it’s “grotesque and immoral” that poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, higher than homicide and ...