Live Forward, but Understand by Looking Back

I grew up In Kansas City in the late 50s/early 60s. The only non-whites I encountered at an early age were blacks. My mother taught me to be afraid of blacks -- to move away from blacks on the bus, to lock the car doors when we drove through 'the black part of town.' I came to know that my dad's early childhood buddies in Acheson, Kansas were black. My mom never saw a black person -- growing up on a farm in central Minnesota -- until she joined the Navy in World War II, right out of high school.

The truth is that I have lived my life aware of injustices and inequality between blacks and whites, and actively fighting against them on primarily political levels, but without the understanding that history brings -- looking back -- to the era of open, unrepentant slavery in this country through and after the Civil War. As recently as last Monday night I stumbled upon a feature on the International History Channel that spoke about this repression.
Entitled "Aftershock: Beyond the Civil War," the description for the program I found on the 'History International' website reads:

"Despite common belief, the Civil War does not end in 1865, and the blood of many Americans continues to flow freely. It is a period know as 'Reconstruction.' America is supposed to be reunited and healing its wounds, but what emerges is a picture of murder, terrorism and chaos as 'free' black men and women remain enslaved by a south that does not completely surrender. Insurgencies led by ex-Confederate soldiers rip through every southern state. America's first terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan, is formed (in Pulaski, Tennessee). Hundreds (including many black ex-Union Army soldiers) are butchered in citywide race riots (about voting rights), like the infamous New Orleans Massacre of 1866. Counter insurgency groups form, like the (native American) Lowry Gang, who fights a guerrilla-style battle against (terrorizing) Confederates, and northern carpetbaggers like D. P. Upham battles the Klan in Arkansas. All Americans feel the Civil War's aftershocks for years, while some believe its tremors are felt even today."

I agree with the latter.