The Through-Line
160 years of a
deferred promise.
This is not history — this is context. Every election we fund, every candidate we back, every suppression law we fight is a direct continuation of this timeline.
1865
13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
Abolition, citizenship, and the right to vote codified into the Constitution. Black Americans move from property to protagonist — holding legislative office across the South within five years.
1870s
Black Americans in Office
Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce elected to the U.S. Senate. Over 2,000 Black officials serve at federal, state, and local levels. Multiracial democracy produces measurable results: new schools, infrastructure, and constitutional reform.
1877
The Compromise & Betrayal
Federal troops withdrawn from the South as part of the Compromise of 1877. Reconstruction ends not because it failed — but because it was politically abandoned. What follows: Redemption, terror, and the systematic dismantling of Black political power.
1877–1965
Jim Crow & Disenfranchisement
Poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and state-sanctioned violence systematically prevent Black political participation. The promise of the 15th Amendment is rendered effectively null for nearly 100 years.
1965
Voting Rights Act
Congress passes the Voting Rights Act, restoring federal protection of Black voting rights. A landmark achievement — and a target. The Act's protections have been steadily weakened by judicial and legislative action in the decades since.
2013
Shelby County v. Holder
The Supreme Court guts the preclearance formula of the Voting Rights Act. Within hours of the ruling, states begin enacting restrictive voting laws that had previously been blocked by federal oversight.
2020s
The New Suppression
A new wave of voter restriction legislation sweeps through state legislatures — voter ID laws, reduced early voting, polling place closures, and aggressive voter roll purges, disproportionately targeting Black and Brown communities.
Now
The Reconstruction PAC
The project continues. We elect candidates who advance Black political power. We defend voting rights against the latest generation of suppression. We build a durable political infrastructure that outlasts any single election cycle. We finish it.
"They called the end of Reconstruction 'Redemption.' We call it what it was: a coup against democracy. We are not redeeming anything. We are reclaiming what was built and stolen." The Reconstruction PAC — Statement of Purpose