Musician Jon Batiste learns about his great-great-grandfather Sam Curtis who was born into slavery in 1830. When Sam’s freedom finally came, he exercised his rights as a free man and registered to vote in Georgia. The Reconstruction Acts passed by Congress in the wake of the Civil War gave formerly enslaved African Americans the full rights of citizenship. With these new protections, Black men were able to participate in voting and hold office, as protected by the 14th and 15th Amendments. In fact, Georgia had three Black state senators and 29 Black congressional representatives—gains that were paralleled throughout the former Confederacy.