Sharing Common Ground

Net proceeds from the sale of this book go to funding Reconstruction Beaufort and the Reconstruction Education Network.

SHARING COMMON GROUND is leading the engagement of Middle School students (grades 6-8) in discovering stories buried in American history. These young people are led to uncover, learn about and interactively share with each other (along with families, friends and communities) the untold and often mistold stories of freed slaves and their suffering and achievements in the Reconstruction era during after the American Civil War.

Education largely ignores these remarkable stories and what they can teach us about our fellow humans. Our students are not taught the success stories of the newfound freedom of the formerly enslaved and how the Jim Crow period stripped away the freedoms and stifled their resourcefulness through fear and intimidation. Regrettably their descends have no idea about where they came from and where they can go in the future based on their forbearer’s ingenuity and successes.