“Power concedes nothing without a demand,” said Frederick Douglass. But sometimes power’s grasping hand curls into a fist, and delivers a searing blow of retaliation. That has been the pattern manifest in the push-and-pull of democratization in the American South since the very beginning–including in North Carolina. After Reconstruction came the racist campaign of Redemption, and after Barack Obama signified an advance in Black political equality has come a series of democratic regressions every bit as ardent in their disposition as what we saw in the South 140 years ago.
Reconstruction was one of the most remarkable experiments in pluralistic democracy ever undertaken in the West. Beginning in the wake of the 250-year-old slave system’s violent denouement, the Reconstruction project sought to remake the South in the image of America’s Founding principles. While white elites resisted by passing Black Codes and mobilizing the Ku Klux Klan, African Americans and Caucasian allies succeeded in nurturing a remarkable experiment in self-government. South Carolina even had the only Black-majority legislature in American history.
This foray into democracy was intolerable to the white power structure, so soon after Reconstruction came Redemption. Across the South, white men backed by armies of racists intimidated, beat, and brutalized small-d democrats in the name of restoring the power of what was then the conservative Democratic Party. Lynchings and massacres were rampant. White Republicans had to flee the South. By the end of Redemption, white supremacist rule had been secured and would last for nearly a century.
Redemption was not simply a campaign of violence, though racial and political violence were at the heart of it. The Redeemers also used carefully designed legal and political strategies to return the South’s governing architecture to white supremacy. Evading the 14th and 15th amendments, they disenfranchised the overwhelming majority of Black people. They also targeted pockets of Black political power with what 21st-century North Carolinians would recognize as “almost surgical precision.” After all, the leaders of the Redemption movement were not, by and large, ignorant rubes. They were the men who had ruled the South in the antebellum era and sought to rule it again.
Now we have another movement of Redeemers, marching under the banner of MAGA. Many of their other tactics resemble the original Southern-Redemption campaign. Redeemers curtailed the power of local governments in heavily Black areas; new Redeemers like Gregg Abbott of Texas and the North Carolina General Assembly have made a science of local-government “preemption.” Redeemers passed literacy tests and poll taxes to deter Black men from voting; every Southern state has passed some form of voter ID law in the 21st century. Finally, and menacingly, the Redeemers counted on the violent support of red-clad Red Shirts to do their bidding, and the events of January 6 demonstrated that white supremacist militias have reentered the political sphere. They even wear red hats.
The most disgraceful instance of Redeemer violence came in 1898, when a white militia group led by local political luminaries overthrew the biracial government of Wilmington, North Carolina. One may have hoped that an American coup would have been a one-time travesty. But on January 6, 2021, thousands of right-wing thugs attempted to overthrow the constitutional government of the United States in the name of keeping a white supremacist President in power and repudiating the influence of Black and Brown voters. Like the Wilmington insurrectionists, they were led by mainstream politicians. Like the Wilmington insurrectionists, their coup drew blood. And like those violent men a century ago and miles to the south and east of the U.S. Capitol, they represented an impulse deep in the soul of this nation that cannot tolerate Black people sharing the rights of American self-government.
Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.
Nice reminder. The US military took its de facto defeat and premature removal from the South with chagrin; it was a clear failure of will to do the right thing. The next time they had a chance to reconstruct enemies they handled it differently, and here I refer to the end of WWII.
After that war we executed most of the worst of the Japanese and German fascists and imprisoned for long terms many others. We outlawed symbols of the war in both countries, made it a crime to wear a uniform in public, to meet in veteran groups. We keep occupation forces in both of those countries. And all that worked.
Once our current coup threats are quelled, we should keep these lessons learned in mind. Crush the MAGA monster until it is naught but a bloody pulp, and only the fool hardy flaunt the rebel flag, that dirty old rag.
Fred Trump attended KKK rallies in the 1920s and 30s. No wonder his scumbag son loved neo-Nazis parading around with Confederate flags.
The scary MAGA people OMG…. what are we to do?…. (clutches pearls…)
Pathetic.
We far outnumber you racist scumbags….. otherwise you’d have been armed in January. Keep rubbing those 2 brain cells together and you might survive. Change is the way of the world, adjust accordingly.
really? Come on. If they wanted to be armed, they would have been. Which is exactly why Jan 6 was NOT AN INSURRECTION. logically a person who wants to overthrow the government would plan it out and bring enough guns and people to sustain it until you goal is achieved.
They did not bring guns (you silly goofball) because it was ILLEGAL do do so!
Woo. I just don’t know how the USA is going to survive that rabid band of MAGATS! I mean following the law and all. Just horrible they are.
What a joke. really.
Seems like GOP are the pearl clutchers…ooh scary books about LGBTQ or CRT or god forbid women left to make their own medical decision
I think the problem the books have is pictures depicting boys sucking cock. and the promotion of mental illness. Trans people are mentally ill.
The promotion of racist CRT (under the guise of other things) telling everyone that race is the only lens that is important. Which has NOTHING to do with History.
As for the third I’ve no idea what you are talking about. If you are alluding to Abortion. Its a state issue via 10th amendment and hopefully it will go back there where it rightfully belongs. Safe, Rare and Legal I think is the standard Bill Clinton wanted. Abortion (outside of some circumstances) Is the taking of a human life in cold blood. Which is murder, and murder is illegal.
Anyway abortion via Planned parenthood (for example) was promoted by a racist eugenicist Margaret Sanger to eliminate Black people and other undesirables I’ve no idea why you support the idea at all. She is everything you guys decry on a daily basis! Makes absolutely no sense.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/07/23/racism-eugenics-margaret-sanger-deserves-no-honors-column/5480192002/
No. I think the problem was pictures of Boys sucking cock, and sodomy. and girls doing the same.
BTW Trans people are ACTUALLY mentally ill. So no we should not be promoting that. Given the suicide rates.
and CRT is racist and has nothing to do with history. It all about race and promoting racism.
And if your last comment is about Abortion (not clear) Its a state issue via the 10 amendment. Abortion is the taking of a human life in cold blood. Which is Murder and murder is illegal. (Of course there will be exceptions made.) Bill Clinton wanted Safe, RARE, and legal to be the standard. I see no issue with that.
Anyway I wonder why Democrats support it at all. The industry was founded by Margaret Sanger in hopes to rid the USA of undesirables and Blacks absolutely racist.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/07/23/racism-eugenics-margaret-sanger-deserves-no-honors-column/5480192002/
The Left’s stance makes no sense to me. But then again I don’t live in the cognitive dissonance of the left and their racist worldview. I managed to escape it. Then they party left me.