The Reconstruction era was born from the tumult and violence of the Civil War and delivered the most powerful changes the United States had seen since its founding. Black Americans in Washington, D.C., and its surrounding region were at the heart of these transformations, bravely working to reunite their families, build their communities, and claim rights long denied them. Meanwhile, in the capital, government leaders struggled to reunite and remake the nation. Famous individuals such as Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells played central roles, as did lesser-known figures like Emma Brown, the first African American teacher in Washington's public schools, and lawyer-journalist William Calvin Chase, longtime editor of the Washington Bee.

Freedom Was in Sight! draws on the words and experiences of people who lived during Reconstruction, powerfully narrating how the impacts of emancipation and civil war rippled outward for decades. Vividly drawn by award-winning graphic artist Liz Clarke and written by Pulitzer Prize-finalist Kate Masur, a leading historian of Reconstruction, this rich graphic history reveals the hopes and betrayals of a critical period in American history.

Kate Masur is Board of Visitors Professor of History at Northwestern University and author, most recently, of Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction.

Masur will be in conversation with Robert Samuels. Samuels  a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and national enterprise reporter at The Washington Post. For close to a decade, Robert has traveled across the country to chronicle politics, policy and the changing American identity. He is the co-author of  His Name is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice, which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Robert has also worked as a staff writer at The Miami Herald and the New Yorker. He grew up in The Bronx and resides in Washington, DC.

This event is free with first come, first serve seating.