An architectural historian considers the way walls real and imagined have shaped belonging, exclusion and citizenship across time — starting with the walls erected by enslaved laborers at the University of Virginia.

There’s no question the U.S. Constitution was, in its original form, a proslavery compromise. But for many — including early African-American activists — the country’s founding principles planted the seeds of the freedom movement. A Civil War historian discusses America’s political fault lines in the 19th century and how they resonate today.