Healing and Justice

Lesson Plan

Day 1

Activity 1: Explore Healing and Justice 

In the introductory activity for this lesson, students will use an anticipation guide to engage with some of the dilemmas that Americans faced after the Civil War. Begin by distributing the Healing and Justice Anticipation Guide. Ask students to complete the handout individually. Next divide the class into small groups of between three and five students. Prompt the members of each group to share and discuss their positions from the anticipation guide. Reconvene as a class and explain that the statements on the anticipation guide relate to two important concepts: healing and justice, both of which were important goals of Reconstruction. 

For added context, you might want to project or write on the board this quote from historian David Blight: 

The challenge of Reconstruction, and it’s the challenge we’ve had ever since, is: How do you do two profound things at the same time? One was healing and the other was justice. How do you have them both? What truly constitutes healing of a people, of a nation, that’s suffered this scale of violence and destruction, and how do you have justice? And justice for whom?

Then discuss the following question with the class: 

• What could Americans do in the late 1860s, as they debated plans for Reconstruction, to balance the demands of healing and justice?

Activity 2: Create a Plan for Reconstruction

Students will now build on their exploration of the concepts of healing and justice by creating their own plans for Reconstruction that attempt to balance both of these goals. In the process, they will look more deeply at some of the dilemmas that Americans faced after the Civil War, and they will create a basis from which they can evaluate the actual plans President Johnson and, later, Congress enacted.

Students will work in pairs or triads. Provide each group with a piece of chart paper, markers, and a copy of Creating a Plan for Reconstruction.

Explain to students that their task is to create a specific plan for Reconstruction that balances healing and justice. Their plan will have to address many of the dilemmas from the anticipation guide that they discussed earlier.

Give the groups 20 minutes to discuss the dilemmas presented on the handout “Creating a Plan for Reconstruction” and decide on a specific proposal that addresses each one. Students should record their proposals on the chart paper.

After they complete their plans for Reconstruction, each group should briefly evaluate its own plan by discussing the following questions among themselves (also provided at the end of the handout):

• Who benefits from your plan and who is harmed?
• How will your plan help to reunite and heal the country?
• How will your plan bring about justice after the war? Does it deny justice to any group of Americans?

Day 2

Activity 1: Explore Reconstruction Plans 

At the beginning of class, using the Gallery Walk teaching strategy, provide students with the opportunity to circulate the classroom to see other groups’ plans. Time permitting, they might revise their own group’s plan based on ideas they learn from other groups.

Activity 2: Watch a Video about the Debate between President Andrew Johnson and Congress

Explain to students that they will be watching a video that provides an overview of how the dilemma between healing and justice fueled a political battle between President Andrew Johnson and congressional Republicans over Reconstruction policy.

Pass out Viewing Guide for the “Political Struggle” for the film The Political Struggle (0:00–9:55). Pause at the following time stamps and ask students to discuss with a partner the questions that appear below and on the handout.

1. Who was Andrew Johnson? (4:50)
2. What details about his background seemed to influence his thinking about Reconstruction the most? (4:50)
3. What was Johnson’s plan for Reconstruction? (9:09)

Activity 3: Discuss Presidential Reconstruction

Explain to students that Johnson’s Reconstruction policies, also known as Presidential Reconstruction, were not the end of the story. They will learn about how congressional Republicans responded to Johnson’s policies in a future lesson. But it is worth taking a moment in a brief class discussion to answer the same questions about Johnson’s plan as students answered for their own plans:

• Who benefits from Johnson’s plan and who is harmed?
• How did Johnson think his plan would help to reunite and heal the country?  Who did he think needed to participate in that process?
• How did Johnson’s plan attempt to bring about justice after the war? Does it deny justice to any group of Americans?

Activity 4: Closing Reflection

Close by asking students to reflect on the plan for Reconstruction they created on the first day of this lesson. Have them respond to the following prompt, first with a partner as a Think, Pair, Share and then on an Exit Ticket: 

• How does what you learned about this history in class affect your understanding of the objectives of Reconstruction? Does it challenge or extend your thinking, and if so, how? Is there anything you would add to your proposal?