Racism in Reconstruction Politics

I show images such as these to my US History students when we discuss the racism embedded in Reconstruction Era political discourse. While nearly all white Americans (from both sides of the political spectrum) endorsed what we, from a twenty-first century perspective,  would consider racist assumptions and stereotypes, the conservative Democrats (especially in the former Confederacy)  did so with a particular zeal. This does not seem to surprise my students at all. It makes sense that the people who had fought to preserve slavery would be racists.  What they have trouble with is the notion that white Republicans - those who championed emancipation and eventually equality before the law for all Americans - could just as readily embrace the shared racist proclivities of the rest of white America. For example, they might support civil,  but not social equality; suffrage, but not political determinism. One of the greatest challenges for students is to distance historical actors from neat and tidy categories. Though we have have a tendency to compartmentalize things for the sake of simplification and easy explanation - seldom does history unfold with clean edges. And as you may already know, I have a web-course that addresses the complexities of this era - tailored specifically for APUSH and college students. And it's test prep time. See how that works out?

With compliments,

Keith