The three-part Grant documentary series on the History channel was an eloquent pioneering effort thanks to its focus on the theme, the importance of Grant’s talents and substance of the era. The dramatic acting scenes were kept at a minimum for effect but I would have wanted more of them and more Grant quotes worked in. The most striking moment was the end of reconstruction highlighted with photos I wanted described more. While President Grant doesn’t get enough credit for wiping out Klan “structure” with the Ku Klux bill he stood by and allowed the end of restoration efforts and further federal arrests of supremacists, bowing to the political pressure of the time. There should have been more of Grant’s reaction to reconstruction and the rise of the southern democrats who are today’s trump supporters. This series, like today’s current events requires more in debt analysis of our nation’s western history; its gravitas of absurdities.
The neglect toward African American justice since this era should be the subject of more honest westerns and documentary series such as this and perhaps it should have been more central to the theme in The History Channel’s Grant but the effort to frame their ideas the way it was presented was a great success especially in humanizing Grant as a true national hero worthy of our 50 dollar bill. Reconstruction efforts lasted from December 8, 1863 to March 31, 1877.
