Finally tonight, a report from PBS News Student Reporting Labs.

That's our high school journalism training program.

They bring us the story of Civil War era Congressman Thaddeus Stevens,

a fierce abolitionist and advocate for racial equality.

His life and legacy are now being celebrated in a new museum.

Liz McKenna has that story. The Southerners called him

the scourge of the South, because not only was he advocating for the end of slavery, he was also

advocating for this total transformation of American society. Thaddeus Stevens is considered

one of the most important voices for racial equality in the nation's

history.

He played a pivotal role in crafting the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution, the 13th

abolishing slavery and the 14th enshrining birthright citizenship, due process, and equal

protection into the fabric of this country.

I do not hold with equality in all things, only with equality before the law.

For decades, he was largely forgotten in the public imagination until his sharp tongue

and iron-willed personality was brought back to life in Stephen Spielberg's 2012 movie, Lincoln.

How can I hold that all men are created equal when here before me stands

stinking the moral carcass of the gentleman from Ohio?

Proof that some men are inferior.

He was known for having really caustic wit,

and so he would just let these zingers fly, both in personal interactions and even on the house floor.

One of his political peers was known to say, I'd rather tangle with a porcupine than with Daddy of Stevens.

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