Reddit mentions of A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration

I'd like to caution you that "reconstruction caused this mess in the first place" is a bit of a weird way to frame such a complicated political period.

If you want to get a good understanding of the period here are some good books you can read that are either on the period or have some material that overlaps with it.

Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution by Eric Foner. I've linked you the abridged version, but there is a 600p version if you're really interested.

Nothing But Freedom by Eric Foner.

Capitol Men by Philip Dray

Deep Souths: Delta, Piedmont and Sea Island Society by J William Harris

A Nation Under Our Feet by Steven Hahn

At the Hands of Persons Unknown by Phillip Dray

Black Reconstruction in America W. E. B Du Bois

If you're interested in African American history (of an earlier variety), check out Steven Hahn's A Nation Under Our Feet (another Pulitzer Prize winning work of history).

Hahn argues that contrary to the conventional wisdom, slave communities were very aware of politics on a local and national level. The book explores slave communities' reactions to political events and how their political sensibilities were translated into political action in after emancipation.

White Flight by Kevin Kruse is another interesting book that documents how urban white communities dissolved during and after the civil rights movement and reconstituted themselves outside of city limits rather than tolerate integration. It's a little more specific than my other suggestions, but a very interesting argument about the suburbanization of America.