Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox

Artist Thomas Nast contrasted this image, captioned “Pardon,” of Confederate politicians and generals applying for pardons, which might give them the right to vote and hold office. . . .

with this image, entitled “Franchise,” of a crippled African American Union veteran, deserving of recognition by the Federal Government for his heroism and sacrifice, and deserving the right to vote

Thomas Nast’s depiction of the

African American victim sacrificed upon the altar of the “white

man’s government” and sectional reunion and

reconciliation

Two Members of the Ku Klux Klan in Disguise, 1868

Thomas Nast’s 1874 cartoon, “The New Alabama”; the flag

reads, “This is a White Man’s Government”

caption reads: “Colored Rule in a Reconstructed (?)

State”: “The members call each other thieves, liars, rascals, and

cowards.”

Columbia: “You are Aping the lowest Whites. If you

disgrace your Race in this way you had better

take Back Seats.”

The “patchwork quilt” of Reconstruction and Redemption

Election 2000

Democrat Samuel TildenRepublican Rutherford B.

Hayes

1876 Election

The contested presidential election of 1876

D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, 1915 release

Griffith’s tremendously popular film set the tone for a wave of motion pictures that denigrated blacks, even if that denigration usually comes through mockery. Birth of a Nation directly contributed to the reemergence of the defunct Ku Klux Klan in the late 1910s, and well into the Civil Rights struggle white supremacists continued to hail the film’s racist iconography.

“the mulatto Gus,” the would-be rapist of a white woman in Birth of a Nation

Screen heavy Walter Long, in blackface, was cast as "Gus,"one of the most controversial castings and performances in cinema history.

Abolitionist Congressman, the Hon. Austin Stoneman (Ralph Lewis, in blackface),spearheaded the Reconstruction era in D.W. Griffith’s vision of the post-Civil War South.

“The triumphant march of the Klan, Lillian Gish and Miriam Cooper at its head,”

a cinematic moment that audiences would never forget.

Missing Revolution in Economic RelationsTHREE (?) PILLARS OF WHITE SUPREMACY?

1)MOB VIOLENCE 2)SEGREGATION 3)DISFRANCHISEMENT

I. MOB VIOLENCE

I. “Carnival of Fury”: Sexual Mythology, Lynching, Mob Violence, and African American Resistance in the New South

A. the “epidemic of rape” that never was

B. Ida Wells-Barnett’s “crusade” against the “old threadbare lie”

Ida B. Wells-Barnett, early crusader against lynching:

“Nobody in this section of the country believes the old threadbare lie that Negro men rape white women”

II.SEGREGATION

The Supreme Court “Jumps Jim Crow”:

[Homer] Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and the Legitimization of Segregation

A.“green light” for segregation and other forms of racial proscription

B.• Plessy serves as the legal / constitutional “cement” for segregation; enshrines legal and cultural “legitimacy” of Jim Crow

III. DISFRANCHISEMENT

A. white Democrats vow never again to have poor blacks and whites join forces

B. “race-blind” disfranchisement mechanisms:

1. poll tax

2. literacy test

3. grandfather clause

Racial stereotypes of black politicians

in 1874

Racial stereotypes of black politicians in 1898

vs. Reconstruction depictions

Editorial Cartoon from the North Carolina White Supremacy Campaign of 1898

Illustration of the Wilmington “race riot” of 1898 as it did not transpire;

blacks were the victims of white

violence, not the authors of

violence

A FOURTH PILLAR OF WHITE SUPREMACY?

THREE (?) PILLARS OF WHITE SUPREMACY?

1)MOB VIOLENCE 2)SEGREGATION 3)DISFRANCHISEMENT

“a missing revolution in economic relations”

One long term consequence of the Black Codes was the “racialization” of the South’s criminal justice system. . . .

Booker T. Washington

the “Wizard of Tuskegee” and “author” of the “Atlanta Compromise”

(1895)

W.E.B. Du Bois

one of the founders of the NAACP,

historian, editorialist, and advocate of “persistent, manly

agitation”

Sign indicating demarcation of segregated seating on Birmingham city bus during the Jim Crow era

Sign indicating demarcation of segregated seating on Birmingham city bus during the Jim Crow era