These civil rights sites of the 1960s, etched in black-and-white images in our memories, are naturals for selection as national monuments. Less obvious, but perhaps more powerful in our nation’s history, is President Barack Obama’s designation of Beaufort, South Carolina, a cradle of Reconstruction. The monument in Beaufort commemorates a segment of the civil rights struggle that is far less prominent in American history. Beaufort’s Reconstruction Era National Monument will commemorate this lesser-known period (about 1865 to 1877) following the Civil War. “You were taking your life in your hands by becoming a black political figure,” says Columbia University history professor Eric Foner.

Source: Huffington Post January 14, 2017 01:55 UTC