Browsing: and they weren’t permanent. But they proved what’s possible when people stop fighting each other and start fighting for each other. If they could do it — in the shadow of the Civil War — then surely

       The Readjusters emerged in the late 1870s, when Virginia’s elites were insisting the state repay its massive pre-war debt in full — even if that meant closing schools and slashing public services. Poor and working-class families, Black and white, saw clearly what was at stake: the future of their children’s education. Public schools had been significantly expanded during Reconstruction, and they were now under threat.