This man is one of the few African Americans who has already cast a ballot. In 1865, shortly before the end of the Civil War, a group of about a thousand Black men in Norfolk, Virginia formed the Colored Monitor Union Club. When a local election was held about a month later, on May 25, 1865, members of the club came out to vote in a demonstration of political will.
Reconstruction 360 uses a 360 degree video platform as a storytelling device that lets the audience step inside pivotal Reconstruction events. By clicking on icons within the 360 video the user can access short documentaries that offer the perspectives of multiple characters, historians and descendants. Reconstruction 360 also includes lesson plans, curriculum standards and primary documents. In this module, The First Vote, join a group of new African American voters at a polling station in Virginia in 1867. Black and white U.S. Army soldiers are serving as poll workers, since the state of Virginia is under federal military rule, and two Confederate Army veterans are not pleased.
