Tour leader: James K. Hogue, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

This walking tour of Reconstruction street battles is based on Hogue’s book, Uncivil War: Five New Orleans Street Battles and the Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction (Louisiana State University Press, 2006), which analyzes the interplay of force and politics in the struggle for power in the Louisiana state government after the Civil War. Union military victory decided the issues of secession and emancipation, but it did not dictate how ex-Confederate states would rejoin the federal Union or determine the status of the freed slaves. These contested issues sparked internal violence and federal military intervention in all of the ex-Confederate states during Reconstruction. A unique combination of demographics, geography, and wartime events caused New Orleans to become an epicenter in the upheaval of Reconstruction and a critical battleground in the struggle over the future of Southern society.

Please note: Participants should wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to walk one to two miles in about two hours with multiple stops along the way. A guide with maps, dates, and brief explanations of the New Orleans street battles is available at Jim Hogue's UNC-Charlotte faculty website: history.uncc.edu/faculty/james-hogue.html

(Limit 12 people) $15 members, $20 nonmembers