One violent event, captured in the best media technologies of its time and brought to American living parlors, completely changed American politics during the Reconstruction period.\xa0A convention at the stately Mechanics' Institute in New Orleans, determined to create a new constitution where all races could vote, was forcefully ended by police in what investigators could only describe as a massacre.\xa0\xa0We discuss the event, the reasons behind it, and how it affected political power for ten years.\xa0\xa0\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices