Reality Check

On Easter Sunday 1873, white paramilitaries attacked Black militia defending the Grant Parish courthouse in Louisiana. After the Black defenders surrendered under a white flag, between 60 and 150 men were systematically pulled from the group and executed. The Supreme Court case that followed, United States v. Cruikshank (1876), ruled that the federal government could not prosecute the murderers, effectively legalizing white supremacist terrorism.

"The half of them was killed after the surrender... They were shot down like dogs."

— Survivor testimony to Congress, 1873

The Red Shirts were a white supremacist paramilitary group that operated openly in South Carolina during Reconstruction. On July 4, 1876—the nation's centennial—they surrounded Black militia in Hamburg, demanded their weapons, and after the militia surrendered, executed five men. The leader of the Red Shirts, Wade Hampton, was elected governor that year through violence and fraud. No one was ever prosecuted.

"The leading white men of Edgefield have decided to seize the first opportunity that the negroes may offer them to provoke a riot and teach the negroes a lesson."

— Martin Gary, Red Shirts leader, planning the Hamburg Massacre

The Opelousas Massacre began when white Democrats attacked a Republican newspaper editor and escalated into a weeks-long campaign of terror across St. Landry Parish. Between 200 and 300 Black people were murdered. The violence was so effective that not a single Republican vote was recorded in the parish in the November 1868 election—in a parish where Republicans had previously won by a large majority.

"The weights attached to the bodies caused them to sink at once out of sight. Many were murdered in the woods, and the buzzards have been picking their bones."

— Congressional testimony on the Opelousas Massacre, 1868

Over three days in May 1866, white mobs—including police officers and firemen—attacked the Black community in Memphis. They killed 46 Black people, raped at least 5 Black women, and destroyed every Black church and every Black school in the city. The massacre helped convince Congress that Reconstruction required federal protection of civil rights, leading to the 14th Amendment.

"Every negro church and schoolhouse in the city was burnt... The rapine and murder were unparalleled."

— Congressional Report on the Memphis Riots, 1866

On July 30, 1866, white mobs attacked the Louisiana Constitutional Convention, which was meeting to extend voting rights to Black men. Police joined the attack. At least 34 Black people and 3 white Republicans were killed, with over 100 wounded. General Philip Sheridan called it 'an absolute massacre by the police... a murder which the mayor and police perpetrated without the shadow of necessity.'

"It was an absolute massacre by the police... a murder which the mayor and police of the city perpetrated without the shadow of necessity."

— General Philip Sheridan's report to President Johnson, 1866

Black sharecroppers in Phillips County, Arkansas gathered to organize the Progressive Farmers and Household Union to fight exploitation by white landowners. When white men fired into their meeting, the sharecroppers returned fire, killing one attacker. White mobs then rampaged through the county for days, killing between 100 and 800 Black people. Twelve Black men were sentenced to death for 'insurrection'; none of the white killers were charged.

"There was never any insurrection... the white people went down there to put a stop to the negroes organizing."

— Walter White, NAACP investigator, 1919

Over 18 hours on May 31-June 1, 1921, white mobs—some deputized by police—destroyed 35 blocks of the wealthiest Black community in America. They killed between 100 and 300 Black residents, left 10,000 homeless, and caused $1.8 million in property damage ($32 million today). Airplanes dropped incendiary devices on Black homes. No white person was ever convicted. Many victims were buried in unmarked mass graves still being discovered today.

"I could see planes circling in mid-air. They grew in number and hummed, darted and dipped low. I could hear something like hail falling upon the top of my office building. Down East Archer, I saw the old Mid-Way hotel on fire, burning from its top."

— Buck Colbert Franklin, eyewitness account, 1921

Rosewood was a prosperous Black town of about 200 people. In January 1923, a white mob attacked after a white woman falsely claimed a Black man had assaulted her. Over several days, whites from surrounding areas murdered at least 6 Black residents (likely many more), burned every structure in town, and drove all survivors away permanently. Rosewood ceased to exist. Florida didn't acknowledge the massacre until 1994, when it paid $2.1 million to survivors.

"We found where Rosewood used to be. There's nothing there now. It's like the town never existed."

— 60 Minutes investigation, 1983

In July 1917, white mobs attacked Black neighborhoods in East St. Louis, Illinois, killing between 40 and 200 Black residents and driving out approximately half of the city's 6,000 Black residents. Homes were set on fire, and Black people fleeing the flames were shot or beaten. The violence was triggered by white workers' resentment of Black workers hired during labor disputes. A Congressional investigation found police had participated in the violence.

"The weights attached to the bodies carried them down. It was impossible to tell how many were thrown into the river to drown... Children were shot down and thrown into the flames."

— W.E.B. Du Bois and Martha Gruening, NAACP report, 1917

Red Summer refers to the summer and fall of 1919, when white mobs attacked Black communities in more than 25 cities across the United States. The violence killed hundreds of Black Americans and displaced thousands more. Major incidents occurred in Chicago, Washington D.C., Elaine (Arkansas), Knoxville, Omaha, and many other cities. Many Black veterans who had just returned from fighting for democracy in World War I were specifically targeted.

"If we must die, let it not be like hogs / Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot... Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, / Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!"

— Claude McKay, 'If We Must Die,' written in response to Red Summer, 1919

Convict leasing was slavery by another name. In Alabama's coal mines, the annual death rate for leased convicts reached 30-45%—meaning nearly half of all prisoners died every single year. Companies had no incentive to keep workers alive because new convicts were always available. The system was more deadly than antebellum slavery because slaveholders had capital invested in their slaves; lessees had none.

"One dies, get another."

— Common saying among convict lessees, documented in 'Slavery by Another Name' by Douglas Blackmon

U.S. Steel, through its subsidiary Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TCI), used convict labor in Alabama until 1928. J.P. Morgan acquired TCI in 1907, and the company continued leasing convicts for another two decades. These were among America's most powerful corporations, building their wealth on what was effectively slave labor decades after the 13th Amendment.

"The convict lease system was not abolished because of moral opposition; it was abolished when it was no longer profitable."

— Matthew Mancini, 'One Dies, Get Another: Convict Leasing in the American South'

'Pig laws' were statutes that made minor offenses—like stealing a pig worth $1—into felonies punishable by years of hard labor. Combined with vagrancy laws that criminalized unemployment, these laws were explicitly designed to arrest Black men and feed them into the convict leasing system. A man could be sentenced to years in a coal mine for not having proof of employment.

"The convict lease system and target of Black Codes were a means of reasserting control over the labor of the freedmen."

— Equal Justice Initiative, 'Slavery in America: The Montgomery Slave Trade'

Peonage worked through debt manipulation. Employers charged inflated prices for food, tools, and housing, ensuring workers always owed money. Trying to leave while in debt was criminalized as 'fraud' or 'obtaining money under false pretenses.' Workers who fled were hunted down and returned. This system trapped hundreds of thousands of Black Southerners in conditions indistinguishable from slavery until World War II.

"It was slavery all over again. We couldn't leave. If we tried, they'd arrest us and sell us to another camp."

— Testimony from peonage survivor, documented in 'Slavery by Another Name'

Alabama was the last state to abolish convict leasing, ending the practice in 1928—63 years after the 13th Amendment supposedly ended slavery. The system only ended because of changing economics and limited federal pressure, not moral awakening. By that point, tens of thousands of Black men had died in mines, turpentine camps, and plantations under conditions often worse than antebellum slavery.

"Before convict leasing was abolished, the exposed bodies of dead convict laborers often lay unburied on the grounds of labor camps."

— Equal Justice Initiative, 'Convict Leasing'

The Equal Justice Initiative documented more than 4,400 racial terror lynchings in the South between 1877 and 1950. This number is almost certainly an undercount, as many lynchings went unreported or were disguised as accidents or unknown causes of death. These were not spontaneous mob actions but organized terrorism designed to maintain white supremacy through fear.

"Racial terror lynching was a tool used to enforce Jim Crow laws and racial segregation—a tactic for maintaining racial control by victimizing the entire African American community."

— Equal Justice Initiative, 'Lynching in America'

Jesse Washington, a 17-year-old intellectually disabled Black teenager, was dragged from a courtroom immediately after his conviction, stripped, stabbed, mutilated, castrated, and burned alive over a bonfire. An estimated 15,000 white spectators watched, including children released from school for the event. Photographers sold postcards of his charred body. The mayor and chief of police watched. No one was ever charged.

"The picture was taken when the boy was still alive and was sold in the community. When children saw it, they took out their pocket knives and carved away at his body."

— NAACP report on the Waco Horror, 1916

Lynching postcards were photographs of lynching victims—often showing the burned, mutilated, or hanging bodies—that were commercially printed and sold as souvenirs. Whites posed smiling next to corpses. People mailed these postcards to friends and family with casual messages. Their existence proves lynchings were community events, openly celebrated, not shameful secrets. The postal service eventually banned them in 1908.

"This is the barbecue we had last night. My picture is to the left with a cross over it. Your son, Joe."

— Actual text from a lynching postcard, early 1900s

Mary Turner, eight months pregnant, publicly threatened to have the mob that lynched her husband prosecuted. In retaliation, a mob hung her upside down, doused her with gasoline, set her on fire, cut open her abdomen while she was still alive, and when her unborn baby fell to the ground, a member of the mob crushed it with his boot. This atrocity was reported in newspapers at the time. No one was ever charged.

"Mary Turner was hung to a tree, gasoline thrown on her clothes and she was set on fire. While she was still alive, her abdomen was cut open with a pocket knife. Her unborn child fell to the ground, where it was crushed by a member of the mob."

— Walter White, NAACP investigator, 1918

In January 1956, just months after their acquittal, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam sold their confession to Look magazine for $4,000. They described in detail how they kidnapped, beat, shot, and dumped 14-year-old Emmett Till's body in the Tallahatchie River. Protected by double jeopardy, they could never be retried. The confession proved what everyone knew: the all-white jury had acquitted obvious murderers.

"Well, what else could we do? He was hopeless. I'm no bully; I never hurt a n****r in my life. I like n****rs—in their place... But I just decided it was time a few people got put on notice."

— J.W. Milam's confession to Look magazine, January 1956

After Ida B. Wells began publishing her investigations proving that lynching victims were not rapists but economic competitors or men who had consensual relationships with white women, her newspaper office (the Memphis Free Speech) was destroyed by a white mob in 1892. She was warned that she would be lynched if she returned to Memphis. She lived the rest of her life in exile in the North, continuing to document lynching and fight for justice.

"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them."

— Ida B. Wells, 'The Light of Truth'

After Sam Hose was tortured and burned alive before a crowd of 2,000, his body parts were cut up and distributed as souvenirs. His knuckles were displayed in an Atlanta grocery store window. W.E.B. Du Bois was walking to the Atlanta Constitution to write a letter about the case when he saw the knuckles displayed; he turned around and went home, later citing this moment as radicalizing him.

"I remember when it was said that Sam Hose's knuckles were on exhibition in a grocery store window in Atlanta, and I turned away and went home."

— W.E.B. Du Bois, recalling the moment that radicalized him

Congress introduced anti-lynching legislation more than 200 times over more than a century. The first bill was introduced in 1900. The House passed bills in 1922, 1937, and 1940, but Southern senators filibustered them to death every time. It was not until 2022—after Emmett Till's accuser admitted she lied—that Congress finally passed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, making lynching a federal hate crime 122 years after the first bill was introduced.

"The Senate could not even bring itself to pass a simple resolution condemning lynching."

— Senate apology for failing to pass anti-lynching legislation, 2005

Grandfather clauses exempted citizens from literacy tests and poll taxes if their ancestors had been eligible to vote before 1867 (before the 15th Amendment). Since no Black Americans could vote before the 15th Amendment, this meant all Black voters had to pass impossible tests while illiterate white voters were exempted. The Supreme Court struck down grandfather clauses in 1915, but states simply created new barriers.

"No male person who was on January 1st, 1867, or at any time prior thereto, entitled to vote... and no son or grandson of any such person... shall be denied the right to register and vote."

— Louisiana Grandfather Clause, 1898

Poll taxes in former Confederate states were typically $1-2 per year, but they were cumulative. To vote at age 30, you might have to pay $20-30 in back taxes (equivalent to hundreds of dollars today) all at once, at the exact moment you tried to register. For sharecroppers who rarely saw cash, this was impossible. By 1964, only five states still had poll taxes—Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia—all former Confederate states. The 24th Amendment banned poll taxes in federal elections in 1964, and the Supreme Court banned them in state elections in 1966.

"The poll tax was designed not just to raise revenue but to create an insurmountable barrier to the ballot box for poor Blacks."

— Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, 1966

Literacy tests were designed to be impossible to pass. Actual questions included: 'How many bubbles in a bar of soap?', 'How many seeds in a watermelon?', and 'Recite the entire Constitution from memory.' White registrars had complete discretion to pass or fail applicants. A Black PhD could fail while an illiterate white farmer passed. The tests weren't about literacy; they were about excluding Black voters with plausible deniability.

"Write and copy in the space below, Section ___ of the Louisiana Constitution. (Registrar shall designate the section.)"

— Louisiana Literacy Test, used until 1965

In the one-party Democratic South, whoever won the Democratic primary won the general election. Texas and other states declared the Democratic Party a 'private organization' that could exclude Black members from voting in its primary. This meant Black Texans could technically vote in the meaningless general election, but were excluded from the only election that mattered. The Supreme Court didn't fully ban white primaries until 1944.

"Be it resolved that all white citizens of the State of Texas who are qualified to vote under the Constitution and laws of the state shall be eligible to membership in the Democratic Party."

— Texas Democratic Party resolution, 1923

In 1964, only 6.7% of eligible Black Mississippians were registered to vote—about 28,500 people out of 422,000 eligible. In some counties with majority Black populations, not a single Black person was registered. After the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, Black registration increased to 59.8% by 1967. The difference between 6.7% and 59.8% is the measure of how effective—and how illegal—the suppression had been.

"In the entire history of Tallahatchie County, no Negro had ever registered to vote."

— Department of Justice, testimony on Mississippi voting, 1965

Reverend George Lee was one of the first Black people to register to vote in Humphreys County, Mississippi. He then began helping others register. On May 7, 1955, he was shot in the face while driving. The sheriff claimed the lead pellets found in his face were 'dental fillings.' No one was ever charged. Three months later, Emmett Till was murdered in the same region. The message was clear: trying to vote could cost your life.

"The sheriff told us the wounds were caused by dental fillings. We knew better. Everyone knew better."

— NAACP investigation into Rev. George Lee's murder, 1955

In Cruikshank, the Supreme Court overturned federal convictions for the Colfax Massacre, ruling that the 14th Amendment only protected against state action, not private violence. The Court said Black citizens must look to state governments for protection—the very governments controlled by the people terrorizing them. This decision effectively legalized white supremacist terrorism for the next 90 years.

"The fourteenth amendment prohibits a State from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; but this adds nothing to the rights of one citizen as against another."

— Chief Justice Morrison Waite, United States v. Cruikshank, 1876

The Slaughterhouse Cases created an artificial distinction between 'national' citizenship (protected by the 14th Amendment) and 'state' citizenship (not protected). The Court ruled that most civil rights fell under state citizenship, leaving them unprotected by federal law. This gutted the 14th Amendment just five years after ratification and left Black Americans at the mercy of hostile state governments for nearly a century.

"The Court eviscerated the Fourteenth Amendment... leaving freed slaves to the tender mercies of state governments determined to reinstitute slavery in everything but name."

— Constitutional scholars on the Slaughterhouse Cases

Justice John Marshall Harlan, a former slaveholder from Kentucky, was the only justice to dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson. He wrote: 'Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.' The irony is profound: a former slaveholder understood what seven Northern justices refused to see. It took 58 years for the Court to catch up to Harlan's dissent in Brown v. Board.

"In view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. Our Constitution is color-blind."

— Justice John Marshall Harlan, dissenting in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896

In Williams v. Mississippi, the Supreme Court upheld Mississippi's 1890 constitution—which was explicitly designed to disenfranchise Black voters—because it didn't mention race on its face. The Court ignored that the convention president had openly declared 'We came here to exclude the negro.' This ruling gave constitutional blessing to voter suppression for the next 67 years, until the Voting Rights Act.

"We came here to exclude the negro. Nothing short of this will answer."

— Judge Solomon Calhoon, President of Mississippi Constitutional Convention, 1890

In one of the most cynical Supreme Court opinions ever written, Holmes argued that if Alabama's voting system was as fraudulent as the plaintiff claimed, then the Court couldn't help because any order would simply be ignored. Holmes essentially said: the system is too corrupt for us to fix, so we won't try. This Catch-22 reasoning abandoned Black voters to unconstitutional disenfranchisement for another 62 years.

"If the conspiracy and the intent exist, a name on a piece of paper will not defeat them. Unless we are prepared to supervise the voting... we cannot undertake to enforce political rights."

— Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Giles v. Harris, 1903

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service in Macon County, Alabama, ran for 40 years (1932-1972). Researchers recruited 399 poor Black sharecroppers with syphilis, told them they were receiving free healthcare, but actually gave them placebos and studied the disease's progression. When penicillin became the standard cure in 1947, researchers deliberately withheld it to continue the study. At least 128 men died of syphilis or complications, 40 wives were infected, and 19 children were born with congenital syphilis.

"The men were never told they had syphilis, nor were they ever treated for it. They were simply used as laboratory animals."

— Final Report of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee, 1996

J. Marion Sims performed dozens of experimental surgeries on enslaved women without anesthesia, based on the racist belief that Black people didn't feel pain the same way white people did. He operated on one woman, Anarcha, at least 30 times. When he perfected his techniques, he began using anesthesia—but only on white patients. Statues honoring Sims stood in Central Park and the Alabama State Capitol until recent removals.

"Sims's innovation was built on the torture of Black women who could not consent and were given no pain relief."

— Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington

Between 1907 and 1983, more than 60,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized under state eugenics laws. Black women were sterilized at much higher rates than white women—so commonly in the South that it was called a 'Mississippi appendectomy.' The Supreme Court upheld forced sterilization in Buck v. Bell (1927), with Justice Holmes infamously writing 'Three generations of imbeciles are enough.' That ruling has never been overturned.

"Three generations of imbeciles are enough."

— Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Buck v. Bell, 1927

Henrietta Lacks was a poor Black tobacco farmer whose cancer cells were taken without her knowledge or consent during treatment at Johns Hopkins. Those cells, called HeLa, became the first immortal human cell line and have been essential to countless medical breakthroughs, including the polio vaccine. Companies made billions from HeLa cells while Lacks's family couldn't afford health insurance. They weren't even told her cells were being used until 1975.

"Scientists have grown more than 20 tons of her cells... her family can't afford health insurance."

— The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

In 1920, Black farmers owned about 16-19 million acres of land. Today, Black farmers own less than 2 million acres—a loss of approximately 90%. This didn't happen by accident. It resulted from USDA discrimination, denial of federal loans, partition sales forced by courts, tax sale manipulations, outright theft, and violence against successful Black farmers. The USDA itself acknowledged systemic discrimination in the Pigford settlement.

"Black farmers lost 90 percent of their land between 1920 and today. This represents one of the largest losses of wealth in American history."

— Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Land Loss Prevention Project

Sharecroppers had to buy supplies on credit from the landowner's store at inflated prices. At harvest, the landowner weighed the crop (often fraudulently), set the price (always low), deducted the debt (always high), and presented the sharecropper with the 'balance'—which almost always showed the farmer owed more than they earned. It was mathematically designed to create permanent debt, and leaving while in debt was criminalized as fraud.

"Ought's an ought, figger's a figger, all for the white man, none for the n****r."

— Common sharecropper saying about settle-up fraud

In the 1930s, the federal government's HOLC created 'residential security maps' that rated neighborhoods. Black neighborhoods were outlined in red and labeled 'hazardous'—hence 'redlining.' Banks used these maps to deny mortgages to Black families regardless of their income or creditworthiness. This federally-sponsored segregation locked Black families out of homeownership and wealth-building for generations. The effects are still visible in today's racial wealth gap.

"Infiltration of: Negro. This area is definitely declining... mortgage lenders are not interested."

— Typical HOLC area description for Black neighborhoods

The GI Bill was administered locally, allowing Southern officials to systematically deny benefits to Black veterans. Banks refused to give VA-backed mortgages in Black neighborhoods. White colleges rejected Black applicants, and Black colleges lacked capacity. In Mississippi, only 2 of 3,229 VA home loans in 1947 went to Black veterans. The GI Bill created the white middle class; Black veterans were locked out of the same opportunity.

"Though the GI Bill was written to be race-neutral, its administration was anything but."

— When Affirmative Action Was White by Ira Katznelson

Between 1949 and 1973, 'urban renewal' demolished 2,500 neighborhoods, displacing over 1 million people—two-thirds of them Black. Highways were deliberately routed through Black business districts. Thriving Black communities were destroyed and replaced with highways, parking lots, or developments Black residents couldn't afford. James Baldwin called urban renewal 'Negro removal.' The wealth and community bonds destroyed have never been restored.

"Urban renewal means Negro removal."

— James Baldwin, describing the impact of federal housing policy

Because banks wouldn't give mortgages to Black families, speculators bought houses cheap, then sold them to Black families on 'contract'—at 2-3 times the price, with no equity building until the final payment. Miss one payment? Lose everything. An estimated 85% of Black homebuyers in Chicago bought on contract. Families paid more than white families while building no equity and facing eviction at any moment. Billions in wealth was extracted from Black communities.

"Contract buyers paid an average of $587 more per year than whites for houses that were worth less."

— The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic

Sociologist James Loewen documented that there were at least 10,000 sundown towns across America—not just in the South, but throughout the North and West. Illinois alone had more than 500. These weren't informal arrangements; many had laws, signs, and whistles or sirens warning Black people to leave. Some sundown towns existed into the 1970s, and some persist informally today.

"Sundown towns were everywhere. They weren't a Southern phenomenon—they were an American phenomenon."

— Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James Loewen

Many sundown towns posted explicit warning signs using racial slurs. Hawthorne, California's sign read 'N*****, Don't Let The Sun Set On YOU in Hawthorne.' These weren't subtle—they were threats of violence. The signs were often posted at city limits and near train stations. Some towns enforced these rules with sirens that signaled when Black people had to leave.

"The sign at the edge of town said what would happen if we were still there after dark. We believed it."

— Oral history, documented in Sundown Towns by James Loewen

Anna, Illinois is one of the most notorious sundown towns in America. Local legend holds that the town's name is an acronym for 'Ain't No N*****s Allowed.' In 1909, the town expelled its entire Black population after a white woman made accusations against a Black man. As of 2000, the town of 5,000 had only 11 Black residents. The racist legacy of sundown towns persists in demographic patterns today.

"Anna's reputation as a sundown town didn't come from nowhere. The expulsion of 1909 was real, and the exclusion lasted generations."

— Sundown Towns by James Loewen

The Green Book, published from 1936-1966, listed hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses that would serve Black travelers. It was necessary because driving through white America was dangerous for Black people. You could be arrested for being in a sundown town after dark, refused service and left stranded without gas, or worse. The Green Book wasn't a convenience—it was a survival guide for traveling while Black.

"There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges."

— Victor Hugo Green, founder of The Green Book, 1948

The Confederate Constitution didn't just maintain slavery—it strengthened it beyond the U.S. Constitution. Article I, Section 9 stated: 'No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.' Article IV required all Confederate states and territories to protect slavery. The Confederacy made slavery more protected than it had ever been, proving the war was about expanding and perpetuating slavery, not 'states' rights.'

"No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed."

— Confederate States Constitution, Article I, Section 9

Three weeks before the Civil War began, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens delivered the 'Cornerstone Speech' explaining what the Confederacy stood for. He explicitly rejected the Declaration of Independence's claim that 'all men are created equal' and declared that the Confederacy's 'corner-stone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man.' This was not about states' rights or tariffs. They said exactly what it was about.

"Our new government is founded upon... the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."

— Alexander Stephens, Cornerstone Speech, March 21, 1861

Prince Edward County, Virginia closed its entire public school system from 1959 to 1964—five full years—rather than integrate. White students attended private 'segregation academies' funded by state tuition grants and tax credits, while Black children had no schools at all. An entire generation of Black children lost years of education. The county only reopened schools after the Supreme Court ordered it in Griffin v. County School Board (1964).

"They closed the schools. We had nowhere to go. Some of us never caught up."

— Testimony from affected students, documented in 'The Lost Generation'

Ruby Bridges, age 6, had to be escorted by four federal marshals through crowds of white adults screaming death threats, racial slurs, and holding signs with coffins. One woman brought a Black doll in a coffin. White parents pulled their children from school—Ruby spent the entire year alone with her teacher Barbara Henry because no white parents would let their children share a classroom with her. Her family faced constant death threats and her father lost his job.

"I remember turning around and seeing this big crowd of people behind the barricades, and they were screaming and throwing things."

— Ruby Bridges, recounting her experience

Massive Resistance was the coordinated campaign by Southern states to prevent school integration after Brown v. Board. Virginia's Senator Harry Byrd led the movement, which included closing public schools, cutting off state funding to any district that integrated, establishing 'segregation academies,' and passing 'interposition' laws claiming states could nullify federal rulings. The movement delayed meaningful integration for over a decade in many areas.

"If we can organize the Southern States for massive resistance to this order I think that in time the rest of the country will realize that racial integration is not going to be accepted in the South."

— Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr., coining 'Massive Resistance,' 1956

A decade after the Supreme Court declared segregation unconstitutional, only about 2% of Black children in the former Confederate states attended school with white children. 'All deliberate speed' meant almost no speed at all. Meaningful integration didn't begin until after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 threatened to cut federal funding to segregated schools—and even then, many districts found creative ways to maintain separation.

"The Supreme Court has made its decision; now let them enforce it."

— Common Southern political sentiment, echoing Andrew Jackson

Segregation academies were private schools created across the South specifically to allow white families to avoid sending their children to integrated public schools. Many received state funding through tuition grants and tax exemptions. By 1970, over 500,000 white students attended these schools. Some still exist today, their origins whitewashed. The term 'school choice' has roots in this movement—Virginia's 'freedom of choice' plans were designed to maintain segregation.

"We started the academy so our children wouldn't have to go to school with them."

— Documented founding statements of numerous segregation academies

Governor Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard not to protect the nine Black students, but to physically prevent them from entering the school. The students faced violent mobs for weeks. President Eisenhower eventually federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent the 101st Airborne Division to escort the students—the first time since Reconstruction that federal troops were sent to the South to protect Black citizens' rights.

"The troops are not here as enemies of the people of Little Rock... They are here to support the law, to preserve order, and to protect the lives of citizens."

— Major General Edwin Walker, commanding officer, 1957

The Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) created maps grading neighborhoods from A ('Best') to D ('Hazardous'). D-rated areas were outlined in red—hence 'redlining.' The presence of Black residents—even one family—could cause a neighborhood to be redlined. Banks then refused mortgages in these areas, trapping residents in a cycle of disinvestment. These maps shaped American cities for generations, and their effects persist today.

"Infiltration of Negro: This is a residential district considerably blighted by the presence of several Negro families."

— HOLC area description, typical language used in redlined neighborhoods

Restrictive covenants were clauses written into property deeds prohibiting sale to Black people and other minorities. They were legally enforceable until Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), and continued to be included in deeds long after. A typical covenant read: 'No part of said property shall be sold, given, conveyed or leased to any Negro or Negroes.' These covenants covered entire subdivisions, effectively creating whites-only neighborhoods across America.

"No persons of any race other than the Caucasian race shall use or occupy any building on any lot."

— Standard restrictive covenant language, used in millions of property deeds

When Bill and Daisy Myers became the first Black family in Levittown, they faced weeks of violent resistance. Mobs of hundreds gathered nightly, throwing rocks through windows and burning crosses on their lawn. Neighbors flew Confederate flags and played 'Dixie' at full volume 24 hours a day. The Myers family required police protection for months. Levittown's developer, William Levitt, had explicitly excluded Black buyers, saying integration would hurt business.

"We can solve a housing problem, or we can try to solve a racial problem. But we cannot combine the two."

— William Levitt, justifying his whites-only policy

The Federal Housing Administration's 1936 Underwriting Manual explicitly promoted segregation. It warned that 'if a neighborhood is to retain stability, it is necessary that properties shall continue to be occupied by the same social and racial classes' and recommended 'deed restrictions' (covenants) to maintain racial exclusion. This wasn't private discrimination—it was official U.S. government policy promoting and subsidizing segregation.

"Recommended restriction should include provision for: prohibition of the occupancy of properties except by the race for which they are intended."

— FHA Underwriting Manual, 1936

Less than 2% of FHA-insured loans went to Black families during the period when the federal government was subsidizing the creation of the white middle class through homeownership. In some years, it was less than 1%. This wasn't accidental—it was policy. The GI Bill's home loan benefits were similarly denied to Black veterans. The racial wealth gap today is directly traceable to this systematic exclusion from the greatest wealth-building program in American history.

"The federal government led the way in establishing and enforcing residential segregation."

— Richard Rothstein, 'The Color of Law'

At Port Chicago, Black sailors were forced to load ammunition in dangerous conditions while white officers supervised from a safe distance. When 320 Black men died in an explosion on July 17, 1944, survivors who refused to return to the same deadly conditions were charged with mutiny. 50 men were convicted and sentenced to 8-15 years. They weren't pardoned until 2022. Meanwhile, the Navy continued segregating and assigning Black sailors to the most dangerous duties.

"They made us go back to loading ammunition... They didn't care if we died."

— Port Chicago survivor testimony

Sergeant Isaac Woodard, still in uniform, was pulled off a bus in South Carolina after asking the driver to let him use a restroom. Police Chief Lynwood Shull beat him so severely with a nightstick that both of his eyes were destroyed, leaving him permanently blind. Shull was acquitted by an all-white jury in 30 minutes. The case was so horrific it helped convince President Truman to desegregate the military in 1948.

"The Chief of Police... took his club and began punching me in my eyes."

— Isaac Woodard, NAACP testimony, 1946

Black veterans returning from WWII faced intense violence, particularly for wearing their uniforms—which white Southerners saw as a challenge to the racial hierarchy. At least six Black veterans were lynched in 1946 alone. Signs in Southern towns read 'N*****, read and run. If you can't read, run anyway.' The NAACP documented hundreds of attacks on Black veterans. Their service for democracy abroad highlighted their lack of rights at home.

"We return fighting. We return fighting. Make way for Democracy! We saved it in France, and by the Great Jehovah, we will save it in the United States of America, or know the reason why."

— W.E.B. Du Bois, 'Returning Soldiers,' 1919 (sentiment continued after WWII)

The GI Bill is often celebrated as creating the American middle class, but it was largely a white middle class. Local VA offices controlled distribution, and Southern (and many Northern) offices denied Black veterans home loans, business loans, and college admissions. Of 67,000 mortgages insured by the GI Bill in New York and New Jersey, fewer than 100 went to non-white veterans. Black veterans were steered to vocational training instead of college.

"Though the3 3GI Bill was officially race-neutral, its local implementation was systematically racist."

— Ira Katznelson, 'When Affirmative Action Was White'

President Truman issued Executive Order 9981 in 1948, but military leaders resisted and full integration didn't occur until the Korean War necessitated it. Black soldiers had fought in every American war—including the Revolution—but were always segregated and given the worst assignments. The military argued that integration would destroy unit cohesion and morale. Within years of actual integration, studies showed integrated units performed better.

"It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin."

— Executive Order 9981, July 26, 1948

The first organized police forces in the American South were slave patrols, established in the Carolinas in 1704. These patrols had the power to enter any plantation, search slave quarters, and brutally punish any enslaved person found off their plantation without a pass. After the Civil War, these patrols evolved directly into police forces and were given enforcement of Black Codes. The continuity between slave patrols and modern policing is documented historical fact.

"The slave patrol was the first distinctively American police institution."

— Dr. Gary Potter, Eastern Kentucky University

COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) was an FBI operation from 1956-1971 that targeted civil rights leaders, Black nationalist groups, and leftist organizations. The FBI surveilled Martin Luther King Jr., sent him a letter suggesting he commit suicide, infiltrated the Black Panthers, and coordinated with local police to disrupt organizing. The program was exposed by activists who broke into an FBI office in 1971 and leaked documents to the press.

"Prevent the rise of a 'messiah' who could unify, and electrify, the militant black nationalist movement."

— FBI COINTELPRO memo, 1968

On December 4, 1969, Chicago police conducted a pre-dawn raid on Fred Hampton's apartment, firing 99 shots (the Panthers fired one). Hampton, just 21 years old, was shot twice in the head while in bed—forensic evidence showed he was likely drugged by an FBI informant beforehand. Police initially claimed a 'fierce gun battle,' but evidence proved Hampton was assassinated. The FBI's informant had provided the apartment layout.

"You can murder a liberator, but you can't murder liberation."

— Fred Hampton

Bull Connor ordered fire hoses—powerful enough to strip bark from trees—and police attack dogs used against peaceful protesters, including children as young as 6. Images of dogs attacking teenagers and fire hoses blasting children against walls were broadcast worldwide, shocking the conscience of the nation and the world. Connor's brutality backfired spectacularly, building support for the Civil Rights Act.

"The civil rights movement should thank God for Bull Connor. He's helped it as much as Abraham Lincoln."

— President John F. Kennedy

The 1968 Kerner Commission, appointed by President Johnson, concluded that white racism was the fundamental cause of urban unrest. The report stated that 'white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.' It called for massive investment in Black communities. Johnson largely ignored the findings, and its recommendations were never implemented.

"Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal."

— Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission), 1968

The New York Draft Riots of July 1863 were the deadliest civil disturbance in American history. White mobs, angry about the draft and resentful of Black New Yorkers, went on a four-day rampage. They lynched Black men from lampposts, burned the Colored Orphan Asylum (237 children barely escaped), and beat or killed any Black person they found. Estimates range from 100 to over 1,000 dead. This was not the South—this was New York City.

"They would take a Black man and hang him to a lamppost; and then another would cut off his head with a butcher knife."

— Eyewitness account, New York Draft Riots, 1863

When Harvey Clark, a Black bus driver and WWII veteran, tried to move his family into an apartment in Cicero, a white mob of up to 4,000 people gathered over several nights. They smashed windows, threw the family's belongings into the street, and set the building on fire. Police did nothing to stop the violence. The National Guard was finally called in. No rioters were prosecuted; instead, the apartment owner and NAACP lawyer were indicted for 'inciting a riot.'

"The police were there, but they did nothing. They just let the mob destroy everything we had."

— Harvey Clark Jr., 1951

When Boston implemented school desegregation through busing in 1974, white residents—particularly in South Boston—reacted with sustained violence. Mobs threw rocks at buses carrying Black children, white students boycotted, and violence continued for years. The iconic photo 'The Soiling of Old Glory' showed a white teenager attacking a Black man with an American flag as a weapon. Boston demonstrated that violent opposition to integration was not limited to the South.

"We don't want them in our schools and we're going to make sure they don't stay."

— South Boston anti-busing protester, 1974

Dr. Ossian Sweet, a Black physician, bought a home in a white Detroit neighborhood in 1925. A mob of hundreds surrounded his house for two nights, throwing rocks and threatening to burn it down. When shots fired from the house killed one of the mob members, Dr. Sweet and his family were charged with murder—not the violent mob. Clarence Darrow defended them, and they were eventually acquitted, but the case illustrated Northern racism's violent reality.

"I have to die like a man or live like a coward."

— Dr. Ossian Sweet, explaining why he defended his home

The Detroit riot of 1943 erupted after months of tension over housing (Black workers were confined to overcrowded slums) and competition for wartime jobs. White mobs attacked Black people on the streets; police killed 17 of the 25 Black victims. President Roosevelt sent federal troops to restore order. The riot demonstrated that racial violence was a national, not just Southern, problem—and that Northern police could be just as deadly as Southern sheriffs.

"The police participated in the riot. They beat Negroes while white rioters went free."

— Thurgood Marshall, NAACP investigation report, 1943

Eugenics—the 'science' of improving the human race through selective breeding—was mainstream American science in the early 20th century. Over 60,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized under state eugenics laws. The movement targeted Black people, immigrants, the disabled, and the 'feeble-minded.' American eugenics directly influenced Nazi Germany; Nazi scientists cited American eugenics laws as models. The Supreme Court upheld forced sterilization in Buck v. Bell (1927).

"Three generations of imbeciles are enough."

— Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Buck v. Bell, upholding forced sterilization, 1927

Samuel Morton collected hundreds of skulls and measured their volumes, claiming to prove that white people had larger brains and therefore superior intelligence. His work was celebrated as 'objective science' for decades. However, later analysis by Stephen Jay Gould and others showed Morton had manipulated his data—unconsciously or deliberately—to confirm his racist assumptions. His 'science' was used to justify slavery and segregation.

"Morton's data were a patchwork of assumption and finagle that could be reassembled to reach any conclusion."

— Stephen Jay Gould, 'The Mismeasure of Man'

IQ tests, designed by and for white middle-class Americans, were used to 'scientifically prove' the intellectual inferiority of Black people and immigrants. The Army Alpha and Beta tests during WWI, which asked questions about American culture that immigrants couldn't know, were used to argue for immigration restrictions. Carl Brigham, who created the SAT, argued that his tests proved Nordic superiority—he later recanted, but the damage was done.

"These Army data constitute the first really significant contribution to the study of race differences in mental traits."

— Carl Brigham, 'A Study of American Intelligence,' 1923 (later recanted)

Carrie Buck, a young woman committed to a Virginia institution after being raped by her foster family's nephew, was chosen as a test case for Virginia's eugenics law. The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that states could forcibly sterilize those deemed 'feeble-minded.' Later evidence showed Carrie and her daughter were of normal intelligence—the 'three generations of imbeciles' were simply poor women. Buck v. Bell has never been explicitly overturned.

"It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind."

— Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Buck v. Bell, 1927

When the New Deal created Social Security, unemployment insurance, and labor protections, Southern Democrats demanded that domestic workers and agricultural workers be excluded—because these were the jobs held by most Black workers in the South. This wasn't accidental; it was the price of Southern support. As a result, 65% of Black workers were excluded from the New Deal's most important protections.

"The exclusion of agricultural and domestic workers was no accident. These occupations were excluded precisely because Black workers dominated them."

— Ira Katznelson, 'When Affirmative Action Was White'

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, founded by A. Philip Randolph in 1925, was the first successful Black labor union. Pullman porters worked grueling hours for low pay, dependent on tips, and faced constant racism from passengers. After 12 years of organizing against company resistance, the union won recognition in 1937. The BSCP became a training ground for civil rights leaders and its victory inspired the larger civil rights movement.

"We made the Pullman Company recognize that Negroes have rights. That was a great victory—not just for us, but for all working people."

— A. Philip Randolph

The 'last hired, first fired' pattern meant Black workers were only hired during labor shortages and were always the first let go during economic downturns. This practice, combined with union discrimination and occupational segregation, meant Black unemployment was consistently 2-3 times white unemployment—a ratio that persists today. Even when hired, Black workers were usually confined to the most dangerous, lowest-paying jobs.

"When times are good, they hire us. When times are bad, we're the first out the door."

— Common saying among Black workers

Major unions including the AFL explicitly excluded Black workers or maintained segregated 'auxiliary' locals with no voting rights. Craft unions in construction, plumbing, and electrical work were particularly exclusionary, using apprenticeship requirements and nepotism to keep Black workers out. This union discrimination limited Black workers to non-union, lower-paying work for generations and contributed to occupational segregation that persists today.

"The most effective barriers to Black employment are often not employer discrimination, but union discrimination."

— Herbert Hill, NAACP Labor Secretary

The Wilmington Coup of 1898 is the only successful coup d'état in American history. White supremacists, angry at the city's successful biracial Fusionist government, organized an armed overthrow. They burned the Black newspaper office, killed between 60 and 300 Black residents, and forced elected officials to resign at gunpoint. Black citizens fled the city permanently. The coup leaders faced no consequences and were celebrated as heroes for generations.

"We will never again be ruled by men of African origin."

— Wilmington Declaration of White Independence, 1898

In August 1908, white mobs rampaged through Springfield, Illinois—Abraham Lincoln's hometown—after a white woman falsely accused a Black man of assault. The mob lynched two Black men, destroyed Black businesses and homes, and drove thousands of Black residents out of the city. The irony of anti-Black violence in Lincoln's city shocked the nation and directly led to the founding of the NAACP in 1909.

"Lincoln freed you, we'll show you where you belong."

— Reported cry of Springfield rioters, 1908

On November 2, 1920, when Black resident Mose Norman tried to vote in Ocoee, Florida, he was turned away. That night, white mobs attacked the Black community, killing between 30 and 60 people and burning every Black-owned building, church, and home. All Black residents were permanently driven out. Ocoee remained all-white for decades. No one was prosecuted. The massacre effectively suppressed Black voting in Central Florida for generations.

"They burned us out. Every house, every church, everything we had. And they told us never to come back."

— Survivor testimony, Ocoee Massacre

On September 19, 1868, about 300 Black Georgians marched to Camilla for a Republican political rally. They were met by armed white citizens who opened fire, killing between 7 and 15 people and wounding at least 30 more. Some victims were hunted down and killed over the following days. The massacre was part of a coordinated campaign of terror across Georgia to suppress Black voting before the November election.

"The roads were strewn with dead bodies for miles. It was a slaughter."

— Freedmen's Bureau report on the Camilla Massacre, 1868

Laura Nelson and her son L.D., around 15 years old, were accused of killing a deputy who discovered stolen goods in their home. A mob seized them from jail, raped Laura, and hanged both mother and son from a bridge over the Canadian River. A photograph of their bodies was sold as a postcard. No one was ever prosecuted. Laura Nelson was one of approximately 100 Black women known to have been lynched.

"Postmarked May 1911. Back of card reads: 'This is the barbecue we had last night.'"

— Inscription on lynching postcard of Laura and L.D. Nelson

Black veterans were specifically targeted for lynching after WWI. White Southerners saw Black men in uniform as a direct challenge to white supremacy. Veterans were attacked for wearing their uniforms, and some were lynched in uniform. The message was clear: military service for democracy abroad did not earn Black men rights at home. The NAACP documented multiple cases of veterans lynched specifically because they had served.

"We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting. Make way for Democracy!"

— W.E.B. Du Bois, 'Returning Soldiers,' The Crisis, 1919

'Legal lynchings' were show trials where Black defendants had no real chance of justice—trials lasting minutes, all-white juries, mob crowds demanding conviction, and defense lawyers providing no real defense. The Scottsboro Boys, nine Black teenagers falsely accused of rape in 1931, were convicted in trials lasting less than a day, with death sentences handed down despite clear evidence of innocence. These cases revealed that the 'justice' system could be as deadly as the mob.

"The trial was a mask for mob violence. The boys were condemned before they entered the courtroom."

— Samuel Leibowitz, Scottsboro Boys' defense attorney

Louisiana's literacy tests included questions designed to be impossible to answer correctly, or with answers that registrars could interpret however they wanted. Questions included: 'How many bubbles in a bar of soap?' 'How many seeds in a watermelon?' and complex constitutional interpretation questions that law professors couldn't answer. White applicants were often given easy questions or none at all, while Black applicants were failed regardless of their answers.

"Draw a line around the number or letter of this sentence."

— Actual Louisiana literacy test question designed to confuse applicants

South Carolina's eight-box law (1882) required voters to place separate ballots for each office into the correct box. If a ballot was placed in the wrong box, it was invalidated. Election officials could change box positions at will. Since many formerly enslaved people couldn't read, they couldn't identify the correct boxes. White voters received help; Black voters did not. This was explicitly designed to nullify Black votes without technically banning them.

"The plan is to allow the white man to vote and prevent the negro from voting without violating the 15th Amendment."

— Edward McCrady, author of the eight-box law

Understanding clauses gave voter registrars power to require applicants to read and 'interpret' any passage of the state or federal constitution to the registrar's satisfaction. This gave total discretion to reject any Black applicant—a Harvard-educated Black lawyer could be failed while an illiterate white farmer passed. The clause existed solely to provide a legal veneer for racial discrimination in voting.

"The registrar would hand the Negro a passage from the constitution and say 'Read that and explain it.' Whatever explanation was given, it was wrong."

— Civil rights worker testimony, Mississippi

In the Civil Rights Cases (1883), the Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, ruling that the 14th Amendment only prohibited discrimination by state governments, not by private businesses or individuals. This decision left Black Americans without legal protection against discrimination in hotels, restaurants, theaters, and transportation for over 80 years, until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"When a man has emerged from slavery... there must be some stage in the progress of his elevation when he takes the rank of a mere citizen, and ceases to be the special favorite of the laws."

— Justice Joseph Bradley, Civil Rights Cases, 1883

Chief Justice Roger Taney's opinion in Dred Scott declared that Black people, whether enslaved or free, could never be U.S. citizens and 'had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.' The decision also ruled that Congress could not prohibit slavery in federal territories, invalidating the Missouri Compromise. This decision was so extreme it inflamed sectional tensions and helped bring about the Civil War.

"They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order... so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

— Chief Justice Roger Taney, Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857

In Corrigan v. Buckley, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld racially restrictive covenants—deed provisions prohibiting sale to Black people—reasoning that these were private agreements beyond the reach of the 14th Amendment. This decision allowed housing segregation to spread nationwide and remained law until Shelley v. Kraemer (1948). Even after Shelley, covenants continued to appear in deeds for decades.

"The prohibitions of the Fourteenth Amendment have reference to State action exclusively, and not to any action of private individuals."

— Corrigan v. Buckley, 1926

Pigford v. Glickman (1999) was a class-action lawsuit revealing that the USDA had systematically discriminated against Black farmers for decades. Black farmers were denied loans, had applications delayed until planting season passed, and were given lower payments than white farmers for identical programs. USDA officials used racial slurs and explicitly stated they wouldn't help Black farmers. The settlement exceeded $2 billion, making it the largest civil rights settlement in history.

"They told me they weren't going to help n*****s... They said it right to my face."

— Black farmer testimony, Pigford case

The Compromise of 1877 resolved the disputed 1876 election by giving Hayes the presidency in exchange for removing federal troops from the South. This ended Reconstruction and abandoned the 4 million Black Southerners to the mercy of the same white supremacists who had just fought a war to keep them enslaved. Within months, Black voting collapsed across the South and the Jim Crow era began.

"The negro will disappear from the field of national politics. Henceforth, the nation, as a nation, will have nothing more to do with him."

— The Nation magazine, April 1877

In a 1994 interview published by Harper's Magazine in 2016, Ehrlichman confessed: 'We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.' This admission confirmed what civil rights advocates had argued for decades.

"Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."

— John Ehrlichman, Nixon domestic policy advisor, interview with Dan Baum, 1994 (published 2016)

In a 1981 interview, Atwater explained how racial appeals evolved: 'You start out in 1954 by saying n*****, n*****... By 1968 you can't say n*****—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights... You're getting so abstract now, you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.'

"You're getting so abstract now, you're talking about cutting taxes... 'We want to cut this' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'N*****, n*****, n*****.'"

— Lee Atwater interview with Alexander Lamis, 1981

Strom Thurmond led Southern Democrats out of the 1948 convention to protest the party's civil rights platform, which called for anti-lynching laws and desegregation. He ran for president on the States' Rights Democratic ('Dixiecrat') ticket, carrying four Deep South states. Thurmond later switched to the Republican Party in 1964, explicitly over civil rights, becoming a symbol of the party realignment.

"All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches."

— Strom Thurmond, Dixiecrat campaign speech, 1948

During Reconstruction, over 2,000 Black men held elected office across the South, including 2 U.S. Senators, 21 U.S. Representatives, and hundreds of state legislators, mayors, sheriffs, and other officials. South Carolina's Reconstruction legislature had a Black majority. These achievements were violently reversed by white supremacist terrorism and the end of federal protection.

"The experiment of negro self-government was being tried in the South... The colored race had shown themselves capable of great things."

— W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1935

South Carolina's Reconstruction legislature, with a Black majority, established the first free public school system in the state's history—open to all children regardless of race. They also abolished imprisonment for debt, expanded women's property rights, and created infrastructure that had never existed under white Democratic rule. These achievements were dismantled after Redemption.

"We have built schoolhouses, established charitable institutions, built and maintained the penitentiary system, provided for the education of the deaf and dumb, and have done more work for the good of the State than our opponents did during the whole time they had control."

— Robert Smalls, Black Congressman from South Carolina

The Deacons for Defense and Justice was an armed Black self-defense organization founded in Jonesboro, Louisiana in 1964. They provided armed protection for civil rights workers, CORE organizers, and Black communities against Klan violence. At their peak, they had 21 chapters across the South. Their presence often deterred white violence when local police wouldn't.

"We made them understand that we were not going to let them run over us. We told them: 'If you come in here starting trouble, you'll have to deal with us.'"

— Deacon Charles Sims, quoted in Lance Hill's 'The Deacons for Defense'

D.W. Griffith's 'The Birth of a Nation' romanticized the Klan as heroes saving white civilization from Black 'savages.' President Woodrow Wilson screened it at the White House. The film directly inspired the revival of the Klan, which had been largely dormant. Membership exploded to 4-6 million by the mid-1920s—not just in the South, but nationwide, including control of state governments in Indiana, Colorado, and Oregon.

"It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true."

— Attributed to President Woodrow Wilson after White House screening, 1915

Most Confederate monuments were not built to honor the dead immediately after the war. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there were two major spikes: during the Jim Crow era (1900-1920) when Black people were being systematically disenfranchised, and during the Civil Rights movement (1950s-1960s). These were erected not as memorials but as symbols of white supremacy and warnings to Black citizens.

"The monuments were designed to intimidate African Americans and to express that this was a 'white man's government.'"

— Southern Poverty Law Center report on Confederate monuments, 2019

The United Daughters of the Confederacy waged a decades-long campaign to control textbook content in Southern schools. They demanded books teach that slavery was a 'civilizing influence,' that enslaved people were happy, and that the war was about 'states' rights.' They successfully got hundreds of 'unapproved' textbooks banned and required 'Lost Cause' narratives. This propaganda shaped Southern education for generations.

"Reject a book that says the South fought to hold her slaves. Reject a book that speaks of the slaveholder of the South as cruel and unjust to his slaves."

— UDC textbook vetting guidelines, Rutherford Committee, 1919

The 13th Amendment reads: 'Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.' This exception was immediately exploited through convict leasing and is still used today—prisoners in many states work for pennies per hour or nothing at all. The U.S. has 5% of the world's population but 25% of its prisoners.

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States."

— 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, 1865

The 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act created a 100:1 disparity: 5 grams of crack cocaine triggered the same 5-year mandatory minimum as 500 grams of powder cocaine. Since crack was more common in Black communities and powder in white communities, this resulted in wildly disproportionate incarceration. Black people are about 13% of crack users but 80% of those convicted. The disparity was reduced to 18:1 in 2010.

"Young black males are incarcerated at a rate almost six times higher than whites. This disparity is driven, in large part, by the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity."

— U.S. Sentencing Commission report, 2007

The U.S. prison population exploded from about 200,000 in 1970 to over 2.3 million by 2020—a tenfold increase. This mass incarceration disproportionately affects Black Americans, who are imprisoned at 5 times the rate of whites. The U.S. has 5% of the world's population but 25% of its prisoners. Scholar Michelle Alexander calls this 'The New Jim Crow'—a system of social control replacing the old.

"Nothing has contributed more to the systematic mass incarceration of people of color in the United States than the War on Drugs."

— Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 2010

On May 13, 1985, Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on the MOVE house, a Black liberation organization. They then prevented firefighters from extinguishing the blaze. The fire killed 11 people including 5 children and destroyed 65 homes in a Black neighborhood. No police officer was ever charged. In 2021, it was revealed that the remains of two children had been kept as teaching specimens at Penn and Princeton.

"Let the fire burn."

— Attributed to Philadelphia Fire Commissioner William Richmond, 1985

When oil was discovered on Osage land in Oklahoma, the Osage became some of the wealthiest people per capita in the world. White people then systematically murdered them to steal their wealth. At least 60 Osage were killed in the 'Reign of Terror'—poisoned, shot, or blown up. White men married Osage women and then had them killed to inherit. Local officials were complicit. This is documented in David Grann's 'Killers of the Flower Moon.'

"The question isn't who was killing the Osage—the question is who wasn't."

— David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon, 2017

Between 1917 and 1964, the filibuster was used almost exclusively by Southern senators to kill civil rights legislation. They filibustered anti-lynching bills in 1922, 1935, and 1938. They filibustered anti-poll tax bills. The 1964 Civil Rights Act required 67 votes to overcome the longest filibuster in history—54 days led by Strom Thurmond's group. The filibuster's primary purpose was defending white supremacy.

"The Senate filibuster has been used consistently to protect white supremacy and obstruct civil rights."

— Adam Jentleson, Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy