By Vikki Bynum

This past week, in celebration of the 4th of July, I joined several historians to discuss the importance of the American Revolution and the American Civil War to the political transformation of our nation. In 1776, America moved from being a slaveholding colony to creating a nation, via the Declaration of Independence,� founded on the principle of human equality. Only after decades of struggle and a protracted civil war did that principle became law. In 1865, the United States� defeat of the Confederate States of America, which was formed to protect and expand the institution of slavery, opened the door to reconstructing our nation by amending its Constitution�first, by abolishing slavery, then, between 1868 and 1870, by bestowing rights of citizenship on freed people. For this reason, the Civil War is often called America�s second revolution.

But the hopeful beginnings of Reconstruction were followed by a tragic�