Historian Kate Masur Discusses her New Book in Conversation with Maya Davis

Freedom Was in Sight! A Graphic History of Reconstruction in the Washington, D.C., Region was commissioned through a partnership with the National Park Service and the Organization of American Historians, the leading professional organization for U.S. history.

Over the course of nearly two hundred pages of full-color, original illustrations, historian Kate Masur and illustrator Liz Clarke draw on the words and experiences of people who lived during Reconstruction to powerfully show how the Civil War and emancipation transformed the United States, with impacts rippling outward for decades.

Narrated by Emma V. Brown, the first African American teacher in Washington’s public schools, the book places Black Americans at the center of this history. Famous individuals such as Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells appear in the book, as do lesser-known figures like Helen Appo Cook, a leading organizer of women who spoke out against the racism of the white-led women’s suffrage movement, and lawyer-journalist William Calvin Chase, longtime editor of the Washington Bee.

Freedom Was in Sight! reveals the hopes and betrayals of a critical period in American history, and corrects misconceptions about the Reconstruction era and highlights the often-overlooked experiences of Black Americans who mobilized for freedom and equality and sounded the alarm as agents of white supremacy consolidated power. Amid the intense national debate about how to teach the history of enslavement and race in the US, Masur offers a compelling, masterful account of the period, explicitly addressing racial violence while also foregrounding stories of Black Americans who met the moment with humanity and cultivated hope for the future.

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