Most War racist violence and denial of dignity the
stories were left out of the white Southern Lost 
Cause mythology that shapes the way this history
is taught to this day

Kadada E Williams wants to set that record straight
she is associate professor of history at Wayne State University 
and author of the new book I saw death coming

a history of Terror and survival in the war 
against reconstruction kadata welcome to think

thank you so much for having me it's a pleasure 
to be here I have to confess I hadn't been aware

that many Americans have perceived the failure 
of reconstruction to have been a failure on the

part of formerly enslaved people but I guess this 
reception is something you have encountered time

and again in your research yes it is and it you 
know what I realized was that it dates back to the

Lost Cause narrative and that becomes clear when 
you ask people who failed to do what right when

people talk about reconstruction they say it fails 
as if it just collapsed in and on itself um and

when you probing you press and you try to figure 
out who they think failed no one says to federal

government sale to enforce African-Americans 
rights some people turn red and I can generally uh

um I can generally identify the people who are 
immersed in Lost Cause narrative understandings

and so you know you encounter when you press 
people this sort of statements these sort of

indications that black people they you know that 
they just push too much they just ask for too much

at once and they weren't ready for Freedom um even 
on this book tour I've gotten some of those um

some of those questions that indicate this this 
sort of um prolonged belief that black people