You can certainly make the case that America lost its way many times throughout its history, and I won’t disagree. From the moment they broke their first pact with the Native Americans to their prospering from the work of enslaved people, and the declaration of Manifest Destiny saying that God intended for it to have every piece of land from sea to sea with all the people in-between be damned. The shaping of its borders, not desirous of Mexico because it “had too many Mexicans,” and Japanese Internment.
John C. Calhoun, the South Carolinian legislative forefather of Lindsay Graham, said,
But there was a moment when America had a chance to do better… and chose not. The Civil War was ended, and the enslaved people had been freed; some took a little longer to get the word (Texas) until the cotton crop was harvested, which was a minor missed opportunity compared to The Compromise of 1877.
The freedmen were still being discriminated against. They couldn’t attend white schools but did have their own. Before the end of the Civil War, Black institutions of higher learning rose, beginning with The Institute of Higher Learning in Cheney, PA, followed by Lincoln University and Wilberforce University. Not really colleges but a beginning. After the war, often with the aid of white religious societies, black colleges rose up, including Fisk, Morehouse, and Howard. The freed enslaved people began to vote, and in the deepest part of the South began to send elected Black representatives to Congress and sit in State Legislatures. Led by Mississippi and Florida, Reconstruction was flourishing to a degree, and America seemed to be on a path that might one day resemble equality.
That didn’t mean the newfound prosperity of Black folk (relative to slavery, anything was prosperous) wasn’t upsetting to the Southern whites who’d seen their entire way of life upended. The only thing that allowed black people to vote, farm on their own lands, and worship in their own churches was the unwanted presence of Federal Troops protecting the new status quo.
In 1876, a disputed Presidential Election left Republicans and Democrats trying to determine which Party would seat the next President. In what seems like a role reversal for those not up on their history, The Republicans, formed partly to abolish slavery, appeared to have lost. Short just one Electoral Vote short of victory with two states votes in dispute and already the Popular Vote winners. It seemed a foregone conclusion the Democrats would ultimately prevail. The Democrats, strongest in the South and the Party the Klan called home, allowed the Republicans to claim victory on one condition. The removal of Federal Troops from the South.
This ushered in the era of Jim Crow, and Democrats immediately wiped out the previous gains of Black people. In 1878, that Republican President, Rutherford B. Hayes, signed into law the Posse Comitatus Act, ensuring Federal Troops could never again be used in that manner on U.S. soil, protecting black citizens. With its adoption of The Compromise of 1877, followed up by Posse Comitatus slamming the door. America consciously and irrevocably declared its lack of conscience and choice down the path of white supremacy. Democrats began a reign of terror, which included voter suppression enforced by lynchings, Jim Crow, segregation (which was always part of the program), and more. Republicans, who still call themselves “The Party of Lincoln,” looked the other way at best. Cheerfully enacting some of the same programs of voter suppression and gerrymandering, which they continue to this day.
It’s estimated that by the year 2045, white people will become a minority in America. Some from the Party seemingly dedicated to representing only white people are doing all they can to ensure white supremacy lasts far past that date. Republicans have been packing the federal courts with ideologues that would normally be considered unqualified except for their belief in white supremacy. Their Supreme Court nominees get more scrutiny, and they have to say more of the right things to get approved. Still, the removal of the filibuster for all court nominees allowed the same Mitch McConnell that held up hundreds of Democratic nominees under President Barack Obama to push through 234 judicial nominations under Donald Trump.
Republicans at the state level are attempting to enact thinly veiled voter suppression laws in forty-seven states and have already seen them signed into law in Georgia and Florida. Surrogates like Senator Tim Scott proclaim the Georgia law, in particular, is not racist and that “America is not a racist country!” He’s only going to convince those that desperately need to believe him.
White America on both sides of the aisle has proven that pragmatism is equal to racism in some cases. They just came up with a good justification. They did it in 1877 and have done so ever since in allowing Jim Crow laws, mass incarceration, voter suppression, wage and hiring differentials, and sentencing disparities. More than ever, minorities must work together to flex the political power to make a change. We can never depend on white people doing the right thing if they can benefit from the other thing.
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This post was previously published on Black History Month 365.
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