Course Description

Instructor: Charlie Richards

As historian Eric Foner has written: “Issues that agitate American politics today — access to citizenship and voting rights, the relative powers of the national and state governments, the relationship between political and economic democracy, the proper response to terrorism — all of these are Reconstruction questions.” Much of what most of us were taught about the Reconstruction Era was false or, at best, distorted by racism. This course will attempt to present an accurate and truthful account of the Reconstruction Era, its meaning and purposes, its successes and failures, and the reasons for its demise.

Bio: B.A. in English from Davidson College in 1970, J.D. from Emory Law School in 1975. Retired from the Georgia Attorney General’s Office in 2013 after 34 years of service in various capacities, first in civil litigation, and later as a prosecutor and Director of the Georgia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Study of U.S. history, especially of the Civil War, has been a lifelong interest. 

Born in Decatur, and have lived in Atlanta all my life. Married to the former Peg McGinty, also a native Atlantan, for almost 53 years. Two children, and six grandchildren.