My research focused on the life and career of Francis Cardozo, the first African American to be elected to state-wide office in the US, an honest man and an effective political leader during the Reconstruction, who was imprisoned following a show trial after the white supremacists returned to power, and whose story has been largely neglected since then. His life is fascinating for itself; it is also a symbol of the history of Reconstruction, its background before the Civil War, its failures and successes and its aftermath.
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