As I watch with disgust as the governor of Florida bans books on the truth about American history and the roots of systemic racism in this country in an attempt to spare the delicate feelings of white children who may feel badly about the historic advantages they and their forefathers received as a result of bondage, segregation, redlining, et cetera, I can’t help but think of the historical gaps in my own education on the founding and formation of this country. One of the subjects that I feel as though I got short shrift on is the Reconstruction period following the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Reconstruction Era lasted roughly from the end of the Civil War in 1865 until 1877. Its purpose was to rebuild the South, re-admit Confederate states back into the union and fully integrate the newly freed slaves into American society as equal citizens as guaranteed under the Constitution. During that twelve-year stretch, African Americans were given the vote, paid for their labor, allowed to hold and own property and, as in the case of Blanche Bruce of Mississippi, even hold the office of United States Senator.
There was, of course, great pushback from southern whites who couldn’t stomach those they had held under the lash for as far back as they could remember suddenly gaining rights and opportunities that not only equaled theirs, but in some cases, such as with Senator Bruce, exceeded them. It is for that reason that Federal Troops were dispatched to the South to guarantee that Civil Rights were maintained. During Reconstruction, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were ratified for the purpose of assuring that Freedmen (as former slaves were known) received the same rights as everybody else. Reconstruction allowed the formation of a free market economy, labor unions, and networks of schools and churches constructed. While there remained stubborn resentment in the South, it looked, at least for a while, as though America was on track to bestow the promised “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” to all its citizens. If only it had lasted.
Resentment of African American rights spread, not just from the South but to regions of the North who hadn’t expected “those people” moving into their towns, cities, and states. Some northerners joined southerners in calling for the removal of Federal troops from the South. Finally, as part of a compromise in congress to elect Rutherford B. Hayes as president during a disputed election, the Federalization of the protection of Civil Rights in the South was ended and the Federal troops recalled. Just as the Ku Klux Klan was forming and gaining power through violence and racial intimidation. A century of legalized segregation and discrimination followed.
Fortunately for me, I was born in 1964, the year of Civil Rights advancement. During the first few years of my life, the Civil Rights Act was passed, codifying into law the equal rights of all citizens. The Voting Rights Act was passed, guaranteeing unfettered access to the ballot box to people of color and federalized monitoring of states with a history of voter suppression. Fair Housing legislation passed, giving African Americans the legal right to live wherever they wanted. Affirmative Action assured equal access in employment and hiring. African American men and women were elected to positions of local, state, and federal power, culminating in the election of the first Black President and now, the first Black Vice President. It looked again as though we were on that right Constitutional path.
Unfortunately, history appears to be repeating itself. Some whites have been whipped up into believing that granting equal rights to people of color somehow takes something away from them. That the equal rights of people of color means their oppression. It’s why we have fools chanting “White Lives Matter,” as if there’s ever been any evidence the contrary. It’s why the United States Supreme Court, which under Earl Warren protected Civil Rights and liberties, has now gutted the voting rights act, making voter suppression so rampant that in some southern states, you can go to jail for giving a drink of water to a Black person standing in the hot sun to vote. It’s why two Black state legislators can be removed from their elected state offices by white colleagues for joining a nonviolent protest against gun violence, while the white official who stood shoulder to shoulder with them is not punished.
I hope to God that I’m wrong, but I fear that history will look at the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as the Second Reconstruction period, where rights were again attempted to be granted equally to all, before being rescinded and doled out to people based solely upon the amount of melanin in their skin. We’re moving backward at an alarming rate and that should frighten all good people of conscience.