It is Black History month, and this month PBS is rerunning its series on the Reconstruction. This is the third time that I have watched it, but it never fails to frustrate and depress me.
What a missed opportunity!
A brief history.
After the Civil war, the slaves had been freed, but freedom didn’t include a way to survive. Due to state laws, most freed men and women were illiterate. Few had experience with money management. They had no means of even getting food or clothing.
Lincoln, a believer in helping all humanity, created the Freedman’s bureau to address their needs. Money was tight but the United States held land (850,000 acres) from foreclosures, abandonment, and lien seizures. In the 19th century, the United States, especially the South, was primarily an agrarian economy. The Freedman’s Bureau planned to loan acreage to former slaves who would have had three years to pay back the loan.
But Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, was a Southerner. Johnson gave the land to white landowners leaving the freed people consigned to a new form of slavery, sharecropping. With nothing left but the right to vote, they elected Black members of Congress and constituted the majority in the South Carolina state legislature. That is, until Jim Crow laws stripped away their rights.
In the best of circumstances, this transition would have been difficult. Many white people could not allow themselves to recognize Black Americans as equals. White people in the South had to create this illusion to justify enslavement. With Southern prejudice, different customs, dialect, and experience, it may have been unlikely that a full integration would have happened in a single generation; but it would have happened a lot sooner.
Instead, white mobs relentlessly targeted and killed Black Americans. Eventually the nation grew weary of the costs of maintaining Black American freedom. The liberal Republicans, then the party of justice, tried to hold on. But, by 1876, with economic problems and the increasingly violent behavior of white supremacists, they gave up. The removal of US troops resulted in the commencement of systematic repression of the Southern Black population.
It has been 150 years, and despite progress, there is still much to be done.
Our country, through the electoral college and the Senate gives more weight to voters from rural and Southern states. In my lifetime, the electoral college has given the presidency to the less popular, conservative candidate twice.
This is unfortunate, because in general rural populations have lower education levels, less sophistication due to less exposure to the world, less understanding of science (e.g., evolution, climate change), and adhere to more restrictive religious conventions that undermine equal rights. I do not mean to imply that Southerners are less intelligent or less caring, but empathy and knowledge for others comes from exposure and experience.
For example, in Manhattan, where Trump lived and operated, he received only 12% of the vote. New Yorkers were able to see him for what he is. Yet even today Trump supporters believe his falsehoods, deny that he lost the election, and ignore his legal issues (including apparently flushing documents down the toilet). And there is a possibility that our Democracy could have collapsed on January 6th, 2021, as Trump tried to eliminate democracy simply because he lost.
Southerners created Jim Crow laws. One of the most embarrassing system of laws ever created anywhere, much less in a free country like the United States. Hitler considered using Jim Crow laws to stop the Jews but determined that they were too outrageous.
As long as we give rural areas more power than urban areas, it is likely that we will continue to have regressive politics.
And I fear that in 100 years from now; the overpopulated, polluted, climate-changed world will look upon this time; when we could have addressed our problems and wonder why we didn’t act.
Imagine if we had spent the money that we spent on the war in Iraq on the environment?
Imagine.
Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.
Mary S. De Shields says
Thank You Angela for the thoughtful article. These facts are important to remember when one might ponder the current socioeconomic and health disparities of African Americans.
One might also acknowledge that history bears witness to the systemic, structural, and violent barriers to the progress of African Americans in this country. A blight that 400 years has not cured, and which will be perpetuated without the concerted good intent and actions of decent people.
“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” Maya Angelou
Stephen Schaare says
Hi Angela, You were doing fine until you brought in Trump. I understand.
Yes, “southerners created Jim Crow laws”. Oops, left out Democrats. Southern Democrats, aka “dixiecrats”. Bull Conner, George Wallace , so on and so forth. Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, sent the U.S. Army to Arkansas to allow children of color access to the public schools. The Dems were blocking the doors.
“We give rural areas more power than urban areas”? Huh? Each state has two Senators in the Congress. The electoral college insures that less populated areas have equal representation. A straight “popular vote” would always favor the more densely populated urban areas. Not fair. Not equitable.
I voted for Trump twice and have never questioned the election results. The government was not in danger of “collapsing ” on Jan. 6th. C’mon. The corrupt General Millie would never have permitted such a thing.
Thank you, be well-Steve.
Michael Allison says
Is is unfortunate that Reconstruction was stopped too soon. However it is also unfortunate that Ms. Rieck compares the events of the late 1800’s to more recent events. It was, in fact, Southern Demarcates who enacted the Jim Crow laws and started the KKK. The to say that Jim Crow laws were too outrageous for Hitler, as if the Holocaust was somehow less so, unbelievable!
Our Country’s system of Government is a Democratic Republic, not a pure democracy. The Founding Fathers put the Electoral Collage in our Constitution for the very reason Ms. Rieck mocks it, to protect less populated areas of the Country from being “ruled” by highly populated metropolitan areas of the Country. Rural areas don’t have more or less power than urban areas – they have same.
Glenn C Baker says
You lost me at “Lincoln, a believer in helping all humanity,”. This Lincoln took the step of declaring martial law and suspending civil liberties, including the right of habeas corpus, in Maryland. Did you know that happened?
Then you embarrassed yourself as a coastal elite liberal by attacking rural people who live in places like Talbot and Caroline County.
I’m embarrassed to have been employed by the same Bell System as you were. We didn’t pretend to be from a superior knowledge class then other Americans when I was there.
Deirdre LaMotte says
Fantastic piece Angela, and here here about the Electoral College. It is completely undemocratic feature in our system.
As Madison said during the Constitutional Convention “the popular vote is the fittest way to elect a president but the slave owning south won’t go for it”. Obviously the south had leverage, and we are living with minority rule. It really
violates our nation’s sense of what majority rule is: one man one vote. It divides our nation into red and blue, when in fact the US is a purple country. The “battleground” states are the only ones that get “heard” by candidates…everyone
else is ignored, their issues are ignored and this is not what a democracy is.
I think the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is a start.
Let the People Pick the President.
And that a state like Wyoming, the least populous state, has a absurdly disproportionate influence is ridiculous. Why should most Americans in populated states be subjected to the values of rural states to such a large degree?
Stephen Schaare says
You have the House, Senate and Presidency. Academia and the Media. You believe ” we are living with minority rule”?
Deirdre LaMotte says
You have missed the entire point. I’m so sorry.
DANNA MURPHY MURDEN says
All of the previous comments are spot on. What I have to save is you need to go back and reread your history books. Because we rural people here on the Eastern Shore say “WHY RUIN A GOOD STORY WITH THE TRUTH “