Teacher Workshop: The Reconstruction Era and Fragility of Democracy | NPS NOIP17AC00357 02

Opportunity Information: Apply for NPS NOIP17AC00357 02

Teacher Workshop: The Reconstruction Era and Fragility of Democracy is a National Park Service (Department of the Interior) discretionary funding opportunity intended to support a cooperative agreement that helps prepare educators to design and deliver programs about the Reconstruction era and its lasting impact on American citizenship and democracy. The core goal is practical: strengthen educators knowledge and teaching tools so they can build public-facing or classroom-ready programming that explains why Reconstruction remains one of the most consequential and contested periods in U.S. history.

The workshop content centers on Reconstruction as a transformative post-Civil War moment when the nation wrestled with redefining itself, expanding civil rights, and attempting to create an interracial democracy. It emphasizes the period as the time when civil rights entered the American legal and political framework in a more formal way, and when foundational questions were fought over in law and in public life: who counts as a citizen, what rights citizenship should guarantee, and how power should be balanced between the federal government and the states. A major theme is that these are not purely historical debates; they continue to shape civic life and political conflict today.

A second major focus is the fragility of democracy, explored through the lens of domestic terrorism and broader social and economic pressures that undermined Reconstruction. Participants are asked to look critically at how violence and intimidation affected democratic participation and civil rights enforcement, and how economic conditions and political incentives shaped outcomes on the ground. The workshop also highlights the importance of historiography and collective memory by examining how certain long-standing narratives about Reconstruction were used to rationalize or excuse the rise of Jim Crow segregation at the end of the nineteenth century. In other words, the workshop is not only about what happened, but also about how the story of what happened has been told, and how those narratives influenced real-world policy and race relations.

The program is designed to connect closely to the interpretive mission of the relevant park site by exploring Ulysses S. Grants role during Reconstruction and how his experiences at White Haven may have influenced his views. While living at White Haven with his father-in-law and enslaved African Americans, Grant had direct exposure to slavery as an everyday system. The workshop invites educators (and, by extension, future audiences) to consider how those experiences might have shaped Grant as a Union general and later as president. It also aligns with the parks interpretive materials, including a newer film that highlights Grants efforts to protect African Americans during his presidency and his support for the 15th Amendment, themes that also appear in the parks public programming.

The intended outcomes are explicitly educator-focused. By the end of the workshop, participants are expected to feel more confident teaching the rapid expansion of rights under Radical Reconstruction, better able to explain why democratic gains can be vulnerable without sustained civic engagement, and more prepared to discuss how national memory of Reconstruction has affected social relationships over time. The workshop also aims to help educators facilitate respectful, informed civil discourse on present-day issues connected to the Reconstruction legacy, including race, freedom, citizenship, and equal political participation. Ultimately, the grant supports building stronger Reconstruction programming that links historical content to its modern-day reverberations.

Administratively, this opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number NPS NOIP17AC00357 02) was issued by the National Park Service under CFDA 15.954 in the Education/Humanities activity area. It was structured as a cooperative agreement, with one expected award and an award ceiling of $51,210. Eligibility was limited to nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status, excluding institutions of higher education. The opportunity was created on April 19, 2018, with an original closing date of May 2, 2018.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the education, humanities (see cultural affairs in cfda) sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Teacher Workshop: The Reconstruction Era and Fragility of Democracy" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.954.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 19, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 02, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $51,210.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education.

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