Howard University And O.O. Howard: A Note On Complexity

Oliver Otis Howard is one of those figures in American history who resists easy summary.

He was, at various points, a champion of the rights of formerly enslaved people, the founder of an institution — Howard University — that has provided education to generations of Black Americans, and the commanding officer responsible for the army’s pursuit of the nimíipuu in 1877.

These facts coexist.

Howard is not a simple villain in the 1877 story, nor is he simply a hero of Reconstruction.