This is part of a broader tradition of resisting racial progress
IfAmerica is traveling on a journey, it has progressed far from its original starting point, where only White, landowning men could vote. During the Reconstruction Era, Congress passed the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery, the 14th Amendment which secured birthright citizenship and “equal protection of the laws,” and the 15th Amendment, which granted Black men the right to vote. Civil rights legislation later sought to strengthen those protections. And yet, these grand declarations of inclusivity are frequently undermined by resistance to progress.
Despite abolition, many White Americans sought to maintain a racial hierarchy. Some may be surprised to learn that President Lincoln claimed in an 1858 speech there was “a physical difference between the white and black races” that “forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.” While historians often refer to the 16th president as the “Great Emancipator,” because of the executive order he signed abolishing slavery, he endorsed a white supremacist ideology that relegated Black people to a lower status. As long as Black and White people lived in the same country…