Sympathy

Post-Reconstruction spans from 1877 to about 1900 in United States history. The politics and culture of the period shaped Dunbar’s rhetorical choices in “Sympathy.” During Reconstruction (1865-1877), the federal government attempted to use its power to ensure that Black Americans, particularly men, had in practice the civil rights enumerated in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Efforts like the Freedman’s Bureau helped set up literacy schools and other important institutions to integrate Black Americans as full citizens and provide reparations for what enslavers materially stole from them. The federal government used troops and federal officials to govern Southern states that fought against the United States during the Civil War. When these state governments were reconstituted, many of the first Black Americans elected to state government gained their seats.

For a brief moment, it looked as if this effort to undo centuries of enslavement and oppression would be successful. By the early 1870s, however, most of the Southern states that the federal government directly governed during Reconstruction regained full statehood, and federal troops withdrew. During the presidential election of 1876, political bargains and waning interest in guaranteeing Black Americans’ rights with force ended Reconstruction. During Post-Reconstruction, the consequences included lynching by terroristic groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, disenfranchisement at voting polls, and draconian Black codes that limited Black Americans’ right to free movement and economic activity.

The details of Dunbar’s life would have made him keenly aware of the historical forces at work in curtailing Black Americans’ freedom. Dunbar was the son of formerly enslaved Black Americans who saw the end of slavery as a legal institution. He was four when Reconstruction ended and would have been a teen during the Post-Reconstruction period, when lynching (including at least two in 1872 and 1896 in Ohio) accelerated ("Oxford Community in Butler County, Ohio, Erects Historical Marker.” Equal Justice Initiative, 2021). Despite these difficult circumstances, Black people and activists resisted such violence. Dunbar was 24 when Ohio finally passed an anti-lynching law. In the context of this national, state, and personal history, “Sympathy” is a poem that reflects the realities of Black life during the Post-Reconstruction period.