In commemoration of Black History Month, please join us on Friday, February 21 as best-selling author Fergus M. Bordewich tells the story of how President Ulysses S. Grant wielded the power of the federal government to dismantle the Ku Klux Klan in an effort to save Reconstruction.

The KKK, which Mr. Bordewich defines as “the first organized terrorist movement in American history,” rose from the ashes of the Civil War. At its peak in the early 1870s, the Klan boasted many tens of thousands of members, and their mission was to obliterate the muscular democratic power of newly emancipated Black Americans and their white allies, often by the most horrifying means imaginable.  To repel the virulent tidal wave of violence, President Ulysses S. Grant waged a two-term battle against both armed Southern enemies of Reconstruction and Northern politicians seduced by visions of postwar conciliation, testing the limits of the federal government in determining the extent of states’ rights.

An independent writer and historian since the 1970s based in Washington, DC, Mr. Bordewich has authored a dozen books, including Congress at War: How Republican Reformers Fought the Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, and Remade America; The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government; America’s Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise that Preserved the Union; Washington: The Making of the American Capital; and Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America.  His talk will be based on his latest work, Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction, a New Yorker best book of the year in 2023. 

Those who are unable to attend this engagement in person are invited to tune in to the lecture and Q&A session via Zoom.  Click on the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81484729387.  No password in required.  To dial in by phone, call 1-301-715-8592 or click on the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/krtCecwxc.  The meeting ID # is 814 8472 9387.  Zoom participants should join the meeting by 7:00 pm.