Populist Interracial Coalition
Furthermore, the illusion of interracial unity is evident in the ideals of racial separation favored by Populists as a way to keep white people safe, promote progress for white and black people, and to allow black people can become more autonomous and mobile, whether these justifications are valid or not, and they likely were not.13 It is completely antagonistic to claim to be a “racial coalition,” while promoting ideals and policies founded on stereotypes and myths of racial difference and inferiority, which would segregate the races, essentially undoing their alliance. Additionally, the fragility of the Populist’s interracial coalition is further suggested by the Democrat’s ability to split the Populists along racial lines and regain white
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In each movement, black members joined as a matter of life and death. For the Radical Abolitionist movement, black participants knew that immediate abolition was necessary to save their lives and the lives of their families and friends. Black citizens joined the Populist movement out of necessity as well. They believed it to be their best chance at racial uplift, education, legal justice, and voting rights.15As such, they were willing to support any movement that combated evils that they faced and promised political, economic, and social uplift, even when they understanding that they were being used for the influence of their vote.16 In each case the reason for black involvement is necessity, because these movements were the most promising courses of change for millions of de jure slaves of the antebellum South and de facto slaves of the Reconstruction and Post-Reconstruction South. However, a true interracial coalition cannot exist under these conditions, in which there is no accompanying unity of understanding, motive, and belief accompanying the supposed interracial unity, because neither group is aware of, nor consenting to the actual motives, means, and ends of their other group. Furthermore, under these conditions, the power dynamics render the black members of these radical movements susceptible to exploitation and false promises by the movements’ primarily white leaders, which is exactly the case in the Radical Abolitionist and Populist movements, and a true alliance cannot be founded upon exploitation and
In each movement, black members joined as a matter of life and death. For the Radical Abolitionist movement, black participants knew that immediate abolition was necessary to save their lives and the lives of their families and friends. Black citizens joined the Populist movement out of necessity as well. They believed it to be their best chance at racial uplift, education, legal justice, and voting rights.15As such, they were willing to support any movement that combated evils that they faced and promised political, economic, and social uplift, even when they understanding that they were being used for the influence of their vote.16 In each case the reason for black involvement is necessity, because these movements were the most promising courses of change for millions of de jure slaves of the antebellum South and de facto slaves of the Reconstruction and Post-Reconstruction South. However, a true interracial coalition cannot exist under these conditions, in which there is no accompanying unity of understanding, motive, and belief accompanying the supposed interracial unity, because neither group is aware of, nor consenting to the actual motives, means, and ends of their other group. Furthermore, under these conditions, the power dynamics render the black members of these radical movements susceptible to exploitation and false promises by the movements’ primarily white leaders, which is exactly the case in the Radical Abolitionist and Populist movements, and a true alliance cannot be founded upon exploitation and