Now with an updated author foreword for 2017! Winner of the prestigious Carey McWilliams Prize for best Undergraduate Honors History Thesis at the University of California-Los Angeles, The Unknown Architects of Civil Rights is a provocative book that re-examines three of the most influential and notable-but largely forgotten-civil rights advocates in American history. As civil rights history continues to hold a prominent place in American society, it is only through the courageous actions of Thaddeus Stevens, Ulysses S. Grant, and Charles Sumner that some of America's most prized civil rights gains are emblazoned in our Constitution. Without these powerful and then-famous politicians, the 1960s Civil Rights Movement may not have unfolded the way that it did without the groundbreaking first legislative steps taken almost a century before. During the Reconstruction Era when racism and prejudice was at its height, Stevens, Grant, and Sumner valiantly fought for African American equality only years following the evil institution of slavery. The Unknown Architects of Civil Rights brings to life the personalities, the struggles, and the legacies of three men who strove towards America's claim of "liberty and justice for all" during this unprecedented time in our nation's history.