US History Essay 1
Ryan Guzzardo
History 144A
Mr. Dvorak
Racism: A Cause of Failure for Reconstruction The Civil War was a horrible conflict which cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of young American lives all because of a racial inequality and civil liberties. After the conflict, a major reconstruction was begun to unify the country as a whole and slavery of the Negro population was abolished. Though the black community was technically free from slavery, the racial tension prevented the overall liberty of the people. White southerners still held the idea that they were better and more competent than Blacks. This led to the Black Codes and repression of the former slaves that inhibited the Reconstruction as a whole. LeeAnna Keith, from The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terro, and the Death of Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2008), argues that the reconstruction was a failure due to racism and the defiance of southern whites to accept Blacks in political positions. Her portrayal of the Colfax courthouse massacre is very graphic and a good representation of what was happening throughout the south post-civil war. Heather Cox Richardson, from The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901 (Harvard University Press, 2001) argues that the failure of reconstruction was not the product of simply racism, but the ideology of Blacks were just being given what others had worked hard to achieve. This is also known as the Free Labor Ideology. LeeAnna Keith portrayed the lynch style killing of Jesse McKinney. Neighbors listened in horror as McKinney “Screamed like a pig,(6) and could do nothing to stop the horrible act of violence. White men of Louisiana saw the idea of black ownership a threat of their way of life and an act of defiance that they saw fit to rectify. McKinney observes this as no other reason other than the fact that the man was black. Keith uses the play on sympathy describing the slow and
History 144A
Mr. Dvorak
Racism: A Cause of Failure for Reconstruction The Civil War was a horrible conflict which cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of young American lives all because of a racial inequality and civil liberties. After the conflict, a major reconstruction was begun to unify the country as a whole and slavery of the Negro population was abolished. Though the black community was technically free from slavery, the racial tension prevented the overall liberty of the people. White southerners still held the idea that they were better and more competent than Blacks. This led to the Black Codes and repression of the former slaves that inhibited the Reconstruction as a whole. LeeAnna Keith, from The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terro, and the Death of Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2008), argues that the reconstruction was a failure due to racism and the defiance of southern whites to accept Blacks in political positions. Her portrayal of the Colfax courthouse massacre is very graphic and a good representation of what was happening throughout the south post-civil war. Heather Cox Richardson, from The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901 (Harvard University Press, 2001) argues that the failure of reconstruction was not the product of simply racism, but the ideology of Blacks were just being given what others had worked hard to achieve. This is also known as the Free Labor Ideology. LeeAnna Keith portrayed the lynch style killing of Jesse McKinney. Neighbors listened in horror as McKinney “Screamed like a pig,(6) and could do nothing to stop the horrible act of violence. White men of Louisiana saw the idea of black ownership a threat of their way of life and an act of defiance that they saw fit to rectify. McKinney observes this as no other reason other than the fact that the man was black. Keith uses the play on sympathy describing the slow and