are not blinded by the old fears and hatred and rivalries. young men who can cast off the old slogans and the old delusions. is aepublican nominee young man, but his approach is as old as mckinley's. >> for a complete american history tv schedule, go to www.c-span.org. a panel of historians now talk wast the ways society fundamentally different after the civil war. they describe the importance of community organizing for freed blacks in the south, the role of former confederate military groups, and evil and political rights ring this era. the event was hosted by the university of memphis. it's about two hours, 20 minutes. >> i don't know about all of you, but i think this symposium has really challenged our minds, touched our hearts, and i think

it has been a very moving experience, and i'm sure that will continue with our panel right now, which is a panel focused on the radicalization of reconstruction. , will introduce our speakers as others have done all at the beginning here, and then they will come up and give you some more wonderful food for thought. julie saville is associate professor of history at the university of chicago. she is a specialist in african american and caribbean histories and the author and editor of numerous books, including "the work of reconstruction: from in southwage labor carolina" and she is currently working on a study of popular politics and resistance to re-enslavement in the caribbean after the haitian and french revolution. blackcus will be on

mobilization in the aftermath of american emancipation. carol amberson is associate professor of history at the university of buffalo. her research focuses on the role of violence and shaping our social, political, and cultural world. she published beyond redemption: race, violence, and the american south after the civil war in 2013 and has launched a new study of ex-slaves historical memories of war and emancipation. her talk will focus on white people's often violent responses to mobilization. the sternberg professor of history and chair of department inhistory at rose college memphis specializes in the american south and the constitutional and legal history of the united states. he is author and editor of a number of looks including "the tiny court: justices, rulings, and legacies. desk finishingw

touches on a new book which is due out next month. his talk today will focus on race, violence, and the reconstruction era .onstitutional amendments i will turn the podium over to julie. ms. saville: i had just one image i would like to show. someone mentioned yesterday i am also pretty old-school and it comes to having an opportunity to talk. the ability to use digital images as effectively as they had in an hour conversations. i had just one photograph and i'm not even sure how to load it.

would you just bear with me a minute? good morning, everyone. i appreciate so very much susan and beverly's invitation to join you at the conclusion of this month-long series of conversations about the 1866 .assacre in memphis i hope you know that despite the repetitiveness and redundancy, that my gratitude is deep, and probably their legacies will last a long time from the experiences that you have made possible. this is a privilege and also more than a little unnerving. your effort to record historical injustice as a community is indeed humbling, much-needed. i consider one of myself one of

the beneficiaries of your support and insistence and helping us muster the humanity to face reconstruction and its legacies of the past -- a past which is not really passed. so i thank the conference ,rganizers, the other panelists and members of the university of memphis campus community, and the larger memphis community for the reflective spirit in which together we are trying to see silent chapter of american history a new and perhaps differently. even more importantly, the civic interaction, the series of frank, public discussions, and the new questions that you have --erated from conversations all these just might well become part of an opportunity not only to see history differently, but

perhaps to make a different history in america. deepain, it is my privilege to join you on this occasion. my remarks today take up the question of african-american mobilization. called a black organizing tradition. not only its legacies after slavery but some of the antecedents in a larger atlantic world prior to the events that we have been focusing on in memphis. i hope these will provide a kind development and things that we could use to think about processes of getting beyond slavery and a kind of lengthy introduction, i would ine to skip some moments emancipation's stony past, viewing them toward the

emancipation of other slaves elsewhere in the hemisphere of the americas. then i want to discuss some elements of this organizing tradition, which you have already talked about in prior conversations as it played out in plantation districts of the deep south after slavery. ,s a third component of my talk if i had a conclusion, it depends on how you answer a question that i would like to put to you. first, slave emancipation as a stony road. road -- this phrase a stony a metaphor of road to describe the path away from slavery sums up what, since the 1980's, has become a point of departure in the study of slave emancipation and the americas. namely, that the path from

slavery to freedom is not linear. increasing attention to processes of emancipation in north america, south america, and the caribbean call to mind thomas polk's memorable take on these dynamics in his book "the problem of freedom," which looked at slavery and post-emancipation politics in jamaica and in the british empire after slavery. he had a memorable take on how he thought about developments. as people having to, in his words, french freedom from its opposite -- wrenching freedom from its opposite. he was describing the process of emancipation, not slavery, but wrenching read him him its that a pursuitts of liberation is indeed ongoing. freedom, if anything, is a moving target, not a destination.

it was not in his helpful and important book where i first encountered this dynamic view of liberation, but rather in the sung byf a song, a song me and countless other children in the segregated southern public schools. probably from elementary school on. we sang it in tuscaloosa, alabama. we sang it at the beginning of morning assemblies when i was a student at hamilton high school here in memphis in the 1960's. the song "lift every voice and thing" written by an african-american composer and one-time naacp president around 1900. it was written in observance of abraham lincoln's birthday for students at his own school in florida where he was teaching to sing in commemoration of lincoln 's birthday. by the time the song came around to me, and it was probably in a

printed program where i first saw the title because i had ,earned the lyrics long before but when i saw the title of the song in a program, it had become the name that some time after world war ii took on the negro national anthem. let me if you will repeat the second verse, and i have to read it because now i'm at a point where my memory no longer suffices. how the lyrics, particularly in the second verse, invoke liberation's winding, brutal path. "stony the road we trod bitter the chasing rod felt in the day that hope unborn had died yet, with a steady beat hath not our weary feet come to the place for which our

fathers side we have come over a way that with tears has been watered we have come treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered out from the gloomy past till now we stand at last where the white gleam of our bright star is cast" even now the line -- i do not know if it is true just for me or you also, but the line treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered gives chills. and the verse "the line links the traveler with victims who have fallen in a journey in --ch life was on the line author top of my head, it's hard to think of another more secular anthem with the possible of [inaudible] in which bloodshed mingles so

freely towards the pursuit of some kind of higher social order. struck by the words, i could not help but wonder what experience this might have given shape in johnson's in imagination. although i'm still examining the phenomenon, the composition became slightly less mysterious that threads of johnson's family history run through one of france's slave colonies in the caribbean, which we now know as the modern country of haiti. in fact, that's not enough to say. at the end of the 18th century, it was the premier prize of atlantic colonialism and americas. it's roughly, 500,000 slaves, 2/3 of whom had

been born in west central africa in the 1780's, primarily in , weres of congo angola producing 2/3 of the sugar consumed in europe, half the 4/5 of the about coffee as well according to historians. prize was ther independent country of haiti, which johnson's family ties past through. johnson's family connections share the first of people in haiti, this first country in the american hemisphere to abolish slavery, and i think some of those of peoples in some ways contributed to points of view that come across, especially in the second stanza of the song.

in 1802, it turns out, johnson's , aernal great-grandmother native haitian woman, as he describes her in his autobiography "along this way," was they -- placed upon a vessel down for cuba by the french soldier who had fathered her three children. perhaps johnson's great-grandmother was trying to get to cuba because of spiraling rumors that the french government planned to restore slavery in 18 oh two, some eight years after it had been abolished in french law. hester argo never reached refuge in cuba, where she probably thought to settle among enclaves andree people of color former slaves, but the boat upon which they left haiti was captured by pirates in the bahamas. they turned out to be yet another obstacle in the path to

freedom that had been thrown up by slavery's abolition in french , and its colonies ongoing abolition gradually in northern states of the united states set in motion after the american revolution. you see, these early emancipation's had brought bands of sea rovers staked out in the bahamas the prospect of valuable human cargo as kidnapped free people of color. black people sold southward by owners in northern states that and began to enact laws of gradual abolition in the 1780's and 1800s. this antedates by half a century the events of the film solomon northrup begins to capture.

the dates from the 1780's, after the american french and haitian ? volution, what might we see it is a short list. the restoration of slavery in law and in practice in former french-american colonies in the exception,ith the colonies where it had been proclaimed abolished. the kidnapping, long-distance transfer, and sale of people freed by deed or gradual abolition laws in the northern states of the united states 50 years before solomon northrup's similar experiences in upstate new york. simply to list these earlyilities in an 19th-century atlantic world in which limited abolition was already under way makes clear, i hope, that whatever else it might be, slave emancipation was no haven.

historically, it was a volatile and reversible state, even , were later in the century encounter the more familiar convulsions and upheavals of slave emancipation and the american south that we had in discussing. but i have not forgotten the song that johnson wrote. johnson's great-grandmother was one of the lucky ones. she and her children somehow escaped renewed captivity when her cuba-bound vessel was seized in the bahamas. experience itself seems always to have haunted from the margins. in johnson's family and to generational memory, never somehow only uncoupled emancipation from the looming

dangers of reenslavement. johnson writes, "when the civil war was raging in the united " -- this is some 60 years after the disrupted escape -- , listening tor rumors that the colored people in the north would be put in became panic stricken. taking her daughter with her, she boarded a ship and returned .o nassau the risk of freedom condensed and made visceral in johnson's ," whatf the slaughtered is memorably described as terror at the heart of freedom -- these are among the rocks strewn along freedom's indeed stony road.

i know that haiti, cuba, the bahamas might seem a geography that is distant from events in memphis, but the volatility of emancipation informed the circumstances of people who claimed emancipation from slavery and movement that variousthrough the nations, colonies, republics, and even a few empires that had begun to form in the americas over the course of a century of slave emancipation from vermont and massachusetts in the 1770's through brazilian abolition in 1888. the experiences of displacement reconstructive for some of the victims of the

massacre in memphis in 1866, we no glimpse how emancipation less than slavery was more a .ource of displacement it opened its way to unpredictable force transfer. such experiences gave rise to coordinated efforts to reduce and informf freedom feltrganizing tradition the most fundamental community efforts that former slaves took to regulate, control, and , but withto stabilize luck, build on their emancipation. these second part of remarks, i would like to turn to the organizing tradition of former slaves in the united states. the idea that the games,

constituencies, and strategies for mobilizing for social justice reflects historically significant conceptions of freedom and historically conditioned patterns of activism grows out of studies of the determinative role of local freedom fighters in the civil rights movement. this has been the concept of an organizing tradition that they have used to get at local leaders, sometimes characterized , not the local people nationally known or recognized heads of centralized organizations, and it is my in very different circumstances, the concept of an organizing tradition can also prove useful in exploring african-american mobilization for justice after slavery. among other things, it calls attention to the long history of

the myriad forms of social activism that have shaped ' politicalricans lives. the notion of an organizing tradition, both when it is used as ie 20th entry and also, would like to try to develop it, in remarks for slave emancipation, looks two ways. it seeks to identify and seek redress from external on himints imposed answer the tour projects, so it looks to external sources of subordination, but it also looks internally to the very nature term blacker of the people associate and characterize with each other. the notion of internal group politics historian robin kelly has called the intro politics of

organizing work. put simply, making a community is part and parcel of the toward of aiming to move externally imposed constraints. it was in the fall of 1855 -- a very simple and more direct politicson of intro reached the ears of president andrew johnson. the explained to johnson organizing tradition more and i'mbly we have, quoting now, for the last four years, they informed johnson, been studying with justice and the best of our ability what steps we should take to become a people -- very interesting phrase -- what steps we should

take to become a people. on the one hand, this language of becoming a people identifies , a kind ofof slavery an alienation from self and from society that is reminiscent of what historian orlando patterson death.cribed as social at the same time, emancipated slaves also insisted that whatever kinds of atomization and subordination, silence in the face of hours that slavery had enforced had led them to envision freedom as a process where things could be different, where they would become a people. recognizable in and of themselves to themselves and to others. of an inospect to finde community life

freedom in this letter to johnson as a recognized right to belong. belonging to clubs, to labor groups, extended family associations, marching companies. all of these promised a means by which former slaves saw as able to act together and thereby begin to undo the links of atomization, obligationternalist which under slavery had sought to tie them individually as accountable to their masters and mistresses. it was in texas slave master from georgia who sis singly described this phenomenon -- and ask-slave's passion for this process of becoming a people. "they are stone crazy for politics," he wrote in the fall of it and five to a family

member. the assessment was not too far off. in the wake of emancipation, seized upons political mobilization as inseparable from community organization. these kinds of post-emancipation freedom summer in the 1860's anticipated the reception,process of initiation, education, and incorporation of newcomers into myriad community groups, processes that form the backbone of grassroots community organized in the freedom movements a century later in the 1960's. awareness of this organizing cost historians to see

emancipation with new eyes. as it has been pointed out in a number of panels, these activities were taking place recognition ofed any basis for african-american political participation, citizenship, let alone an organized presence in public .ife formally authorized rights nevertheless certainly made contributions to the achievement of social justice, or they had the potential. formally authorized to. but as was underscored yesterday, formal political processes are responsive to an interaction with claims that fashioned not in the sunlight but in the shade of political life. they come upon their

understanding of those processes by watching, not by being summoned. thatinds of upstart claims were identified for making a standing in civil society. it fell then to these unauthorized people or not yet authorized people, groups of who brought to emancipation really since the haitian revolution, they say, somehow the conception that they were already free. it spurred them on to give meaning to the opening that legal abolition legitimated and would inevitably mediate that .ever fulfill indeed, there unauthorized actions bring to mind the contradiction that a political theorist in his simply titled

book "emancipation" that is fundamental to the very ideas of emancipation as a concept, namely that by its nature, emancipation is effective would seem to require the possession of those very qualities that the emancipation is intended to foster. maybe more simply, you don't get beyond a structure of domination unless you have already crossed its borders, maybe more than a few times. emancipation did not make slaves men and women. they had become that long before. the challenges of elaborating a social program that would give meaning to a life beyond slavery from anpiration underlying if no just social

relationships that these now former slave men and women had developed in captivity. to take a look at some of the general features of this mobilization and because we have talked about them so helpfully in prior discussions, i want to just sketch what strikes me as some of the distinctive contours of the effort. we probably cannot make enough of the overwhelming role that worker-centered identities and units of association play in visions, association and expectations that emancipated people brought to emancipation. i will mention this, too -- in their acts, their pronouncements, their boycott, the strikes, their assertions

both in the digital and collective, it is possible to hear the premise first of all that they make no distinction between political and economic concerns. we've got a couple of illustrations of this -- really short ones, i promise. if we look at reports about the behavior of former slaves, constitutional conventions in the states that had been elected under the first full male suffrage provisions of the march 18 67 reconstruction act that susan and kate talked about yesterday were sitting, the reports that let people were closely watching those events, not only in the city's case, but also out of the countryside as well. it is circulating news about what thoughts might be going on or should be going on while the delegates elected to the convention were sitting, where there were reports of work stoppages on plantations and regions of south carolina and

.ississippi while the delegates met, they were refusing to sign contracts to work for next year on the thectation that perhaps conventions had something better in store. a second tenet of the convictions that these worker centered units brought to ways iation, and in some think they echoed what had been until the middle of the 19th century a fairly familiar tenet of the political ideology of democratic self government, republicanism, namely that representative institutions require some kind of material basis. if they are to work effectively and meaningfully for all .onstituents

there's a kind assessing telestrator, a disconnection between democratic practice and economic security that comes by way of adams run, south carolina. when a large landowner and former slave owner in the neighborhood of adams run who was disgusted by the spectacle of these first elections based on universal male suffrage in his neighborhood reported to a family member how friedman came at pollsheir ballots in adams run, bringing with , halters toorted mules, which they expected to carry home. when i first read this, i was skeptical. the planner is trying to suggest certainly x slaves' gullibility and lack of reparation for voting. indeed, i have also read testimony from former slaves themselves who denounce the suggestion that freed people statesd that the united

government would confiscate plantation land. indeed, one former slave in south carolina said this was a story started by democrats. , taking thatess with perhaps some kind of meaningful contribution, i want to at least suggest going back to a premise that democratic institutions require a material not a and that is ridiculous proposition. so then, to look in a pointed way at the relationship between those laws that emanated from congress on the march 1867 reconstruction act and the more local state of this burgeoning movement -- think of it this way. the march 1867 reconstruction act puts the authority of the

nation within reach of local movements to give a social and economic content to outcomes of the civil war that had been formal andto assume reproducible political forms since the war itself had drawn to a close. congressional action and , particularly in what one7, stimulated historian has described as a year of miracles, opening up popular mobilizations, our president in national history. themovements submergence in countryside were more broadly based in terms of social groups, in terms of regions of the

united states than popular mobilizations during the era of the first american revolution. not since the 1770's had local acted so publicly to coordinate and make judgments about the basis of governance. not since the 1770's and probably again not until the 1960's and the southern united states. i'm going to skip further the constituents of this mobilization. i don't want to consume too much time. i think we have talked about the margin companies that formed almost in a sentence in which drilling became a form of practice. i would love to go inside and relationships -- that is

a hit for questions if you would like to talk later on. and indeed to elaborate on the distinctive political space occupied by black women during this mobilization. that has been raised then ,xamined, and we can come back but i did want to underscore the mobilization. they regarded voting as to justtant to be left to those who have been enfranchised. political discipline in their view became a community affair. and it was effective. turnouts approached above 90% of in plantation districts and elections in 1867, and many of them in 1868. conclude with a

photograph that i think something of the aspirations, the modes of organization of these mobilizing rural communities. this photograph was taken by the fall barnardo in of 1874 or 1875. barnardo had traveled with ulysses grant's army of the mississippi, but he was back now. for what purposes, i'm not sure in south carolina. it seems as though the composition of this single file possession of a tragic cup 27 people -- at least four of whom are adults, probably reflects input from both the subjects themselves and from the photographer. on the one hand -- do you know

or have ideas about what you might be seeing in this photograph? hand, students have asked me what of these bags on people's heads. saw aess when i first much greater your photograph, i thought everyone was wearing hats because the cotton i know about is from the southwest. that is carried in bags. event, what they are carrying on top of their heads, bags with the harvested cotton crop. , they areying it departing from the intended lessons of plantation rituals that have been developed under slavery. under slavery, plantation rituals had ceremonial eyes the power of antebellum christian

masters, often by idealizing masters of old as the provider in the dispensing of plantation allowances for as a patriarchal leader of household prayers, presiding over a newly christianized slave plantation body. as a repeated phrase in many of the catechisms written for sermons to be addressed to slaves often recite, your masters and mistresses are god's overseers on earth. the composition of this something suggests differently. this post emancipation harvest observance is celebrating the creative power of laboring households. we see a lengthy procession of adults, children, and infants winding its way through pit fields with both men and women

large bags of harvested cotton on their heads. an elderly man at the front of the procession to rest in what appears to be a battered but serviceable top hat and a swallowtail coat is holding aloft some kind of decorative and implement the special authority that he is exercising in this localized group, which may have been simply an extended family relation of kin. another man behind him in the procession -- not directly -- also carries some article. i cannot tell -- i still do not know even with magnification if a's a large book -- maybe bible -- or a folded banner reminiscent of a federal flag. nevertheless, what he is carrying as a symbol of some kind of acknowledged and recognized authority in this group.

by contrast, the most visible women only occupied positions directly behind men who presumably headed their households. even the oldest woman in the procession, and this is the second woman in this procession, who carries some kind of non-utilitarian object -- maybe a bell to suggest or special powers -- marches directly behind the elderly man who leads the procession. the configuration then thereby a hard one household and fairlydealized well-defined patriarchal forms. at the end of the procession -- and i do not know if it is only visible here -- it is scarcely visible on the photograph. we begin to see women workers whose households march in the without anbut obvious male head or figure.

their presence trails invisibly into the woods where the quarters and residential houses are located. leaving shadowy traces that are scarcely visible at the rear of the procession. the harvest ritual of this plantation community, then, community and some visions but not divisions. we get a glimpse of an increasing masculinization of workers' social ideals. at the very same time that women remain vital and distinctive components of both the labor and .olitical process , ithen, by way of conclusion think the consequences of social mobilization can be assessed

from several disadvantages. successful social mobilization without disagreement among sociologist are those that have short time, , immediate goals. these are not the goals of slave emancipation. by necessity, their views were long-term. long-term social mobilization could have an impact on political institutions and on in whichral symbols those institutions must rest. moreover, they could also have as tools of impact political education and as tools of social learning, even for members of these long-term emancipatory projects themselves. the latter sense, in terms of long-term goals, in terms of

biographical impact and the socialion, mobilizations of reconstruction were profound. the questions that they raised, the basis of democratic governance, and a broadly inclusive and expanding multicultural america have only begun to be -- or were only beginning to be addressed and continue to multiply. out toten pointed sociologists that these long-term movements are not successful. they are defeated, displaced, shot down. a number of historians, and i find most helpful the suggestions of rebekah scott, is

that the social learning that takes place during a mobilizing a transfer generates of social energy to other arenas, other domains, other kinds of institutional forms. so, for example, when politics became a blood sport in the reconstruction south, efforts to expand schools, places of socially independent assembly, meeting houses, often churches, orphanages -- these kinds of rebuilding efforts and areas that were less lethally began to suggest and become the basis for a kind of resilience. where do defeated social

mobilizations go? they have a kind of present and disappearing appearance simultaneously. they flourish at one moment only to seemingly vanish in moments when the cost has been judged by the mobilizer's to be too high a price to pay. i don't know that there is a conclusion for these thoughts. if there is one depends on your answer to a question i would like to put to you. as someone who has never worked with local history of memphis in do not knowrch, i if collins chapel church on washington street, one of the eight lakh churches that was

in may, 1868, was an organization that was later earlier dated with the post-world war ii institution of collins chapel hospital. if your answer to the question is yes, it was, then the resilience of those who rebuilt after the may massacre in 1866 formed part of a bridge of action that opened a space where a family that had quit tuscaloosa in 1961, when the adults in that family decided that escalating threats of police violence had made tuscaloosa to risky and where they thought they could find and did find in collins chapel and other city hospitals spaces in which they could renew hopes, plans, and professional skills. as a child in that family, i

have only as a historian come lately to understand my indebtedness to those who returned after may 3 to take up rebuilding collins chapel if that chapel is connected to collins chapel hospital. if indeed this is the conclusion, kids, do not learn these kinds of conclusive efforts, lessons from evidence. kids take away morals, and so a thel to the story is that conclusion might be that if by some combination of grace and good luck you pass through to catastrophe,e of a first, pause. take a deep red. sit through the ashes. look forward, and pass it on.

mother, who iy learned in professor love its' introductions today might actually in a phrase i always attributed to her. she said, you can learn from anything that does not kill you. [applause]

ms. emberson: ok, there it is. fantastic. before i get started i also want to echo the gratitude and appreciation that all the other speakers have expressed, both the susan o'donovan and beverly bond and the other folks here at the university of memphis and supporters of this conference for organizing it and inviting me to participate. it truly is an honor and a privilege to share with you some of my work in an effort to commemorate the memphis massacre. so the title of my talk today comes from the book of matthew, chapter 11 verse 12.

it is also the title as many of you will know of a novel that explores the inescapable mix of religious fundamentalism and violence that o'connor saw is endemic to seven society. in the, its defining characteristic. however in the few minutes i have with you today i would like to challenge the conventional assumption that the violence we so often associate with the south was or is particular to this region. certainly the image of the violent south has animated popular thinking about the region and its relationship to the rest of the nation injuries. -- for centuries. from thomas jefferson's list of characteristics future but it in large part to the south's hotter climate, to the continuing red state-blue state division that dominates so much political

analysis, this out often functions as the nation's foil in terms of race, religion and class. compton asked after he heard the bloody, incestuous story of the rise and fall of in archetypal slaveowner william faulkner's novel, "jesus , the south is fine, isn't it? is better than the theater, isn't it? is better than ben-hur, isn't it? rather than running off into the night as he did for claiming he did not meet the south, i will stay here and discuss with you how the trope of the violent south is idea -- this idea the violent south of skiers with it reconstruction era violence, which is our focus this weekend, reflected deeply held american ideas and values about manhood and citizenship.

rather than set the south apart from the broader sweep of american nationalism that emerged after the civil war, the violent words and actions of white southerners placed them firmly within american culture. furthermore, reconstruction era violence of which the memphis massacre was but an opening act did more than simply stand out much of the grassley's -- grassroots organizing tradition in the deep south, or break of three people's effort to obtain economic independence. it did all this in places, but violent spectacles like the one in memphis and he can take the six and later in georgia in 1868, lauren colfax, louisiana and 1873, or alabama and

louisiana in 1874, in vicksburg in 18 that he five, in hamburg, south carolina and 18th have any sick -- 1876. these wanted to see what supremacy not only in the south but in the entire nation. let me explain. in order to do that we must begin at the end, end of reconstruction which coincided with the nation's centennial celebrations in 1875 and 1876. start of this and tenniel celebration season the washington light infantry, a militia unit from charleston, was invited to participate in the bunker hill memorial celebration in boston. organized in 1807, the washington light infantry had been involved in most of the major military actions

throughout the 19th century. during the civil war its primary function have been the defense of charleston, but some of its units saw action in virginia. most notably at the battle of petersburg. reorganized after the civil war as part of the south carolina rifle club movement in the mid-1870's, was resulted in the proliferation of paramilitary units dedicated to the protection of white men's rights, the washington light infantry would help wade hampton take the governorship of south carolina in 1876 as part of his redshirt movement. the motto was "peaceably if we can, but forcibly if we must." not knowing the role the light infantry would play the next year and his administration, the violent unraveling, been governor daniels chamberlain, a massachusetts native heartily

endorsed the unit and its mission of brotherly goodwill. he was not alone. harbor left charleston u.s. troops stationed there bid them a fond farewell to the 37 gun salute. northern newspapers charted their trip day by day, noting all the dignitaries that greeted them along the way. in new york city the establishment fetted them at the same dell monaco's restaurant. upon their arrival in boston, which was "the first appearance on northern streets of a military unit which had fought for the confederacy, cheering crowds turn out to meet them." local leaders made speeches praising the renewal of bonds based in the two state shared military history during the american revolution. one never of the unit when he visited harvard university declared "we are strangers and

aliens no longer, but brothers and fellow citizens of one common country." nephew oftzhugh lee, robert e., attended the celebration as well because he was hard of another invited southern regiment, the norfolk light artillery blues. be summed up the feeling of all involved and he said, "when i reflect that i even american citizen and that i too am a descendent of those men who fought at bunker hill, and that i too have a right to be here in celebrate their splendid victory, i take courage." it was a dazzling display of the chords of memory that abraham lincoln had so fruitlessly attempted to call forth in april of 1861. and that a most peculiar thing occurred. the commander of the washington

light infantry presented the massachusetts governor with a palmetto cane engraved with a coat of arms of those states. a palmetto cane was the weapon of choice south carolina congressman preston brooks it used to be within an inch of his life massachusetts senator charles sumner on the floor of the senate in 1856 during the debate over bleeding kansas. surely no one attending the event could have missed the irony because at the time it had been one of the great scandals and national controversies of the 1850's. according to one attendee of this presentation, if the presentation recalled the treatment of charles sumner by preston brooks, this person said, "no mention was made of the earlier use of a south carolina cane."

there were other omissions in the series of revolutionary war celebration as well. for instance, nowhere in the accounts of the bunker hill memorial celebration appear any mention of the famed massachusetts 54th, the black regiment featured in the movie "glory," whose gallantry in south carolina had to recently been the pride of the bay states. what are we to make of this gift of the palmetto cane? to the light infantry needed to be ironic? wasn't meant to be an apology of sorts for the actions of the long deceased brooks? that the governor or other northern delegates beauty cane as an unwelcome reminder of not-too-distant hostilities? or did they accept it as a heartfelt expression of a shared

history of patriotism and sacrifice? we will return to those questions shortly, but first let's backtrack a little bit and explore the rise of terror military units like the washington light infantry in their role in bringing about the end of reconstruction. militarism -- para- militarism has a long history in the south. franklin traces its organization and yet develop self in his book "the militant south." southern cities like charleston and new orleans were among the first in united states to have police forces, while the malicious, to state malicious and the slave patrol regulated slave movement throughout the backcountry. slavery required a considerable amount of surveillance and discipline. so much so that perhaps he could begin his treatise on modern

disciplinary culture with antebellum slavery rather than the prison. in any case the southern need for armed social and political regulation became in some ways even more crucial after slavery was legally abolished. with what had been the internal dividing line in the south, it becamet, now gone, even more crucial to the ability of white southerners to control the exercise of political civil rights. frediaeagerness in which -- free people seek freedom and the opportunities it afforded them to vote, run for public office, go to school and work are themselves underlined that reality. ofsome sense the extent reconstruction era violence, the pervasiveness of it actually signaled to us many of the

successes of reconstruction. first the costume night writers notice the ku klux klan attempted to enforce black subservience in the late 1860's and early 18th 70's until his -- 1870's until a series of federal prosecutions largely broke up the organization. sending a replaced by armed nowrs that issued over illegal hoods to write around --ride around disguised. they continued the campaign against southern blacks in their white allies. leaguede leaks oh -- were unafraid of being associated with it. while southern elites and democratic leaders had intended to publicly announce the clan as undisciplined rabble, not so with the white leagues.

when their campaign of terror began in 1873 in louisiana, the valorization of white violence was central to their identity and their appeal. southern newspapers praised how the leagues demonstrated the aggressive instinct of the white people. to the extent that the brutal suppression of black political independence became naturalized. in this is it be declared their violence was not only lawful but eminently proper and essentially necessary for the protection of public and private rights. in a leagues built constitutional argument that it been absent from the klan's self-justification. for instance, in new orleans the crescent city white league which

was composed of former confederate officers and sons of some of the city's wealthiest elite families effected a coup d'etat of the state government in 1874 after the republican-controlled and racially integrated metropolitan police seized a shipment of arms that the league had purchased and was trying to sneak into the port. using the second amendment at his justification for their armed takeover of the state, the white league referred to themselves openly as the new minutemen. that was their word. they were poised to reclaim the right that the revolutionary forefathers had won a century before. hardliners in the deep south understood and believed that violence was the key to political and social change. they presented the political

contest of the mid-1870's, including the pivotal --sidential election of 1896 1876 using the language and imagery of war. war served to justify their violent redemption of the south and the reestablishment of what they called home rule. it also situated these white paramilitary squarely within the american revolutionary tradition. the white leagues were conscious of the need to appeal to outsiders and convinced northern observers of the validity of their violent struggle. it was the only way they could avoid further federal interference in situations like louisiana and 1874. after the september coup d'etat, president grant used federal troops to reinstall the elected officials that the white league had run out a few days earlier.

wrote to man from -- one of the white league's papers. "is there no language strong enough to awake the people of the north to a sense of the danger that threatens forever to bury their liberties?: " is an active effort on the part of the white leagues to appeal to northerner sense of constitutionality, of liberty, of american tradition in order violent actionr against free people in their white allies throughout the south. parishn from the recognized that southerners were acting not just in a local stage, but a national one. in order for the democratic party to ultimately succeed in majority of white northern

voters would have to come to feel the cause of white supremacy was theirs too. the spectacles of violence the white wee -- league's orchestrated in the mid-1870's survey number of purposes. first and foremost it stamped out black political organizing. this was perhaps its most straightforward and utilitarian function. but southern violence also possessed a kind of performative function that's a little less straightforward to explain, but it was something that earlier this morning hannah rosen was talking about when she mentioned how the rapes and sexual assaults and met this allowed white man to sort of an act or reenact these fantasies of

superiority that they had over newly free people. on the one hand, participating in what was very public action. like forcing elected republican officials in a parish to march out of their offices at gunpoint, sign resignation papers, and then literally jump on a horse and leave town. --se kinds of their republic very public rituals. as well as the all-out military engagements with the city police force, like we see happening in new orleans. these kind of spectacles and rituals allowed white man to perform their revolutionary heritage and appeal to a broader american sensibility about necessity of fighting to demonstrate your worthiness as a man and as a citizen. that such actions were performed

openly, undisguised, in broad daylight demonstrated their legitimacy in the eyes of the people who were performing it. extremether hand, the nature of much of the violence against free people, and i am talking about here is maiming, cutting off people's gears or fingers -- ears or fingers, leaving marks on their faces, postmortem mutilation of murdered corpses and other kinds of humiliations. these exhibited a level of white rage that exceeded what was strictly necessary to keep black people from voting. massacre of athe least 59 friedman in colfax, 1873iana on easter sunday,

a simplifies what holocaust calls therima levy useless violence. as levy pointed out in his ruminations about the torture of jewish prisoners, useless violence was not really useless. it became an end of itself, whose sole purpose was inflicting pain. stripping prisoners naked, refusing them facilities for bathing or relieving themselves, tattooing them with numbers that replaced their names, forcing the second nearly dead on thousand mile journeys in said railway cars only to shoot them upon arrival. these kinds of gratuitous acts cruelty dehumanized victims and gave the perpetrators a sadistic sense of pleasure. and more importantly, to -- this and degradation

kind of humiliation and degradation forced jewish prisoners to perform their own inferiority, allowing germans to feel justified in the persecution. before dying the victim must be degraded so that the murderer will be less burdened by guilt. although reconstruction violence did not come close to the scale of genocide in nazi europe, there were moments when white southerners exhibited their own genocidal fantasies as a response to the of people's of emancipation -- of peoples -- upheavals of emancipation. whites cut the throat of dead bodies. the corpses according to federal investigators who arrived three or four days after the massacre was over and then "badly shot to

pieces and received numerous wounds to the head." the faces of some of the victims had been virtually erased by head trauma. a calling card of genocidal violence that scholars have recognized more recently in places like rwanda. the u.s. attorney who would be in charge of prosecuting the perpetrators unsuccessfully i might add, believed that the aim of the attack and it simply to wipe out the black population of grant parish, louisiana. he found the level of violence exhibited according to him in his notes, "a wantonness of killing on call for by anything except that motive." for louisiana whites, the colfax massacre, and this is the marker the state historical marker that

exists today commemorating the event, for louisiana whites the colfax massacre formed the basis of an emerging violent subjectivity that shape their understanding of themselves as white people. as i mentioned before, these gruesome murderous actions were not dismissed as the work of ruffians from other states or even regrettable lapses in control of otherwise good men. this had typically been the way a lot of seven politicians and establishment people had tried to dismiss the client -- klan in years before. rather they represented important lessons about the nature of politics and the problem of black freedom. emboldenedy the -- by the acquittal the previous year, they praised it as a

"wholesome lesson to black to dare defy white authority." despite the extreme brutality exhibited at colfax, the white league newspapers it clear it was the work of "determined and just men who knew just how far to go." louisiana, and indeed the rest of the south, needed more men like them according to these papers who were, "bold and resolute and not afraid of a little bloodletting." monument in aly a local cemetery commemorating three of the white men who were with the the shootout free people at colfax. whites -- but a spectacle like colfax communicated lessons to free people about the cost of defiance. they also communicated important

lessons to whites who might be reluctant to join this new movement for white supremacy. white unity in the south during this period is often taken for granted. we tend to overlook the political divisions that fractured whites, mainly along class lines. a number of what were called at the time fusion had successfully, albeit temporarily united some moderate democrats and republicans in mississippi and louisiana. these fusion tickets campaign for black votes, and in some places they actually endorsed lakh candidates for office. --lakh candidates for office black candidates for office. they tended to support industrial interest like railroads, which further threatened agriculture interests in some areas.

and from the beginning there had to then opposed formation of what we call the white man's party in louisiana. there was a white supremacist party. they pushed for a "people's party." a grassroots popular populist movement that welcomed black voters in black support. these fusionists and the people's party became the sworn enemy of the white leagues, that viewed them as far more dangerous in the "diluted negroes" whose ignorance was to be expected." even a man, a white man that wanted to avoid politics altogether and just farm and with his life and stay out of the fray was feared by the white leagues as "a traitor to his race in country, and false to his wife and children, and deserves to be ruled forever by

negroes." this was written in one of the white league papers. white men must actively support their cause or risk the league's warath. words of symphony will not do, warned the paper in northwest louisiana which was called the people's indicator." -- indicator." "whites should be found on one side with the caucasian race." the white leagues declared war on whites as well as blacks and encouraged members to ostracize those white people who would refuse to join. the franklin, louisiana enterprise, another white league paper advocated what they called a book of remembrance of all those people who were refusing to join the league, so their children would be "forever cast

out from all association with the caucasian race." lynch, a black congressman from natchez, mississippi, recalled how local blacks tried in vain to keep their white allies from deserting them. they were informed that "no white man can live in the south in the future unless he is willing and prepared to live a life of social isolation and political oblivion." ostracism, vitriolic paired toght've been, the threat of physical harm and death that hung over whites that hailed to hoist the dinner white supremacy high enough. register,sippi another white paper, said the white men to ally themselves with negroes in this conflict

need not expect any better fate than they. the fact is they will be the first to suffer. similarly, the yazzie democrat called for "down vote in short shrift for any white man that opposes their plan of violent richard fusion. -- retribution." when one norther when one northern observer traveling through asked one white leader he met how he planned to steer the white people in the state with all into aiverging views single statement, he said, "we will make it to dam hot -- too damn hot for them to stay out."

taken to the woods for fear of the marauding rights. colfax murder the and the subsequent murders a few months later -- actually, the next year -- were kept constantly in the minds of everyone in the community werese the events continually replayed in the paper so that no one was ever going to forget what had recently happened, what these bloody events had amounted to and reminding people that they could and would in fact happen again. the result of this was not only a landslide democratic victory at the polls in the fall and in ine parishes surrounding northwest louisiana and the red river district, not a single .epublican vote was cast but we also see what happens around this event is the coalescence in louisiana of

white supremacy. although it had to be forced into existence with excessive brutality, white unity nonetheless emerged from the violent assaults on three people and their white allies. in other words, violence brought white supremacy into being, not the other way around. which is typically how we often think of it. we think of these kind of violent acts as expressions of white supremacy, but what i think we see going on here is the creation of white supremacy through these kinds of spectacular events. the colfax massacre inaugurated , thehite league movement military movement in louisiana which thin spread to mississippi and to south carolina throughout the deep south. colfax mobilized white southerners by getting -- giving tangibility to their cause. not a lost cause by any stretch of the imagination. rather a very winnable one.

that brings us back to bunker hill memorial. of the palmetto cane symbolized more than just a growing amnesia in the country surrounding slavery, emancipation, and the civil war. it also represented the shared history of revolutionary violence that united white americans and that were really being invoked so frequently in period.ennial instead of dividing them, this history brought white men together as soldiers and in the common cause of "good government." rhetoric ofs in the centennial celebrations. not only in boston but in philadelphia, you hear a lot of people talking about good government, which by 1875 had

become the code word for white supremacy. minutes before the presentation of the palmetto came, the former national leader of the grand army of the republic, which was a veterans organization, the former national leader had proclaimed, "all true men are with the south in demanding for her piece, order, and honest and encouragingent and her the work of rebuilding all ."at has been made desolate other speakers at the event decried what they called the mire of corruption and degradation that had beset south carolina, other southern states in the wake of emancipation and black in franchise meant. the memory of the american revolution paved the way for sectional reunification by allowing former enemies to see themselves as the torchbearers

of revolutionary violence against corrupting elements that sought to destroy the nation's .xceptional mission white paramilitary throughout -- south invoked the memory actively invoked the memory of 1776 in their violent struggles against republicans. the people's vindicator, that white league paper from northwest indiana, wrote, "we complain of grievances 1000 bostonore monstrous than court mills or paltry taxes upon ."e and stamped paper in south carolina, wade hampton's redshirts in his campaign for the governorship marched under banners that read, "what we did in 1776 we will do again in 1876." to gauge the success of

southerners' attempts to make their cause a national one, let's examine as a final example a northern reaction to general philip sheridan's efforts to quell the ongoing unrest in louisiana. when the white league once again took over the state capital in grant sent his old right-hand man, his good friend fighting phil sheridan, to the city to restore order. you know, grant had relied upon sheridan in the shenandoah bring in 1864 to virginians to heal, which he did very effectively, so he called upon him again. after his arrival, sheridan dispatched a telegram to the secretary of war, asking that he be allowed to treat the white as then dedee city

, stripping the white leagues as their presumed legitimacy, casting them not as patriotic revolutionaries but rather as pirates.iminals, a telegram was leaked and was published not only in the local new orleans paper but pretty much in every newspaper across the country. the reaction in louisiana was predictable enough. sheridan was burned in effigy. the windows at his hotel in new orleans were shot out and any time that he did dare venture out into the streets, he was his stat and spat upon -- just -- hissed at ann's that upon. not really surprising. the reaction of northerners is surprising. "the new york times" commented that they had never published such a document before and had

to say nothing like it has ever been seen before under a country with a constitutional government. the times then went on to compare sheridan to oliver cromwell and said it almost induces one to believe that the world has gone back to hundred or 300 years in both feet. and practice of government. they are completely outraged that basically what sheridan is asking the secretary of war to give him permission to do is to declare martial law, which is not unusual throughout the 1860's and 1870's. much of radical reconstruction had been premised upon the military reconstruction and martial law throughout the south. to act like this had never been heard of over the last 300 years was a bit of a hyperbole, to say the least. grandpa's referral -- refusal to denounce sheridan or withdraw him from louisiana one hidden repeated death threats, right? including one from philadelphia, a man in philadelphia who kuimed to be a member of the

klux of the north. he predicted that another booth would give the drunken blackguard ignorant embassy of --in the seal -- a missile imbecile, president grant, his just desserts. the pennsylvania and ohio state legislature officially passed resolutions denouncing the telegram as well as president grant's refusal to condemn it. 1865, and advisor and friend of president lincoln and after the assassination, he had been an adviser to president johnson, and he had advised johnson to pursue a much tougher course of action against the south, which

had included at the time martial the telegram found so appalling that every american citizen who loves liberty stands aghast. "the new york tribune" advised the president as well as the public more generally to "take a broader view" of southern matters, which meant supporting white louisiana in its bid to take back their state. saw that theelf political tide had changed. writing in the spring of 1865 at the height of this fiasco, he "the nextthat rebellion was to be fought under and in thend stripes north as well as the south." sheridan also believed

southerners had learned a very important lesson from the civil war. he wrote, "the mistake the confederates made in 1861 was to have had their own flag." americans celebrated a century of independence, the country seemed to teeter on the precipice of another revolution. south carolina's warlike redemption inspired democrats nationwide to make preparation for the presidential contest between rutherford b. hayes and samuel tilden. reports of rifle clubs being andnized across the north south carolina worried republican officials to the extent that the outgoing president issued a stern warning to anyone who planned to disrupt rutherford b. hayes' inauguration the following winter. the contested election spurred indignation conventions across the north where democrats called

.or armed resistance to hayes the sergeant at arms of the house of representatives proposed to deputize 100,000 men to enforce the democratic opponent, tilden's election. drunk with revolutionary imagery, joseph pulitzer, editor of "the new york world" declares his readiness to "they're his breast to the bullets of the tyrant and rush headlong upon the glittering steel." in a staggering political conversion, former abolitionist george julian, who was a congressman from louisiana, who radical supporter of reconstruction, the civil rights act, as well as suffrage for african-american men and women, had by that time become a and at a democratic rally in indianapolis, julian fired up his audience with indications of both 1776,

reminding the crowd that "a century ago, our fathers took up arms in defense of the right to a voice in the government, and we assert that right now and ask that the will of the people be registered as supreme law." to a modern reader, these kind of statements may be red like butrbola of the worst sort, the crowds by all reports lacked it up. grant and hayes prepared for an onslaught that never came, but the threat of which remained real nonetheless. redemption had tapped into a strain of revolutionary romanticism and disillusionment with the federal government that coalesced in the centennial year to highlight centrality of violence to american white national identity. white americans were a people at with the labors,

movement, with immigrants, and racial others, and with a growing host of enemies within, but southerners were no longer among them. ironically, as george julian pointed out, war had reconciled the nation at last. thank you. [applause]

>> good afternoon. i have the honor of giving the last presentation before lunch. it is an honor to be here. thank you, of course, to susan and beverly for all your work. i want to talk about the big constitutionalism and violence in the era of reconstruction, so i wanted to in to widen our frame today this session, and i actually want to talk about two questions . first, why was reconstruction revolutionary? second, what was the relationship between constitutionalism and violence during reconstruction?

i think that the common thread rights, sos issue of i want to talk about rights here today. in order to understand rights in the antebellum period, if we go back to the 1840's and 1850's, which i think we have to do if we are to understand how and why reconstruction was revolutionary -- we have to understand what actually changed, so if we go back to the 1840's and 1850's, we see that the mainstream national debate over rights is not debate over the rights of enslaved people. rather, it is debate over the right of slaveholder's. from the perspective of the early 21st century, that sounds in the strange, but

1840's and 1850's, white theyerners claimed that had a bundle of legal and constitutional rights -- at least three. one was the right to own slave the southern states where slavery was legal. second, in their minds was the right to reclaim fugitive slaves in the northern states. , most controversially, in the 1840's and 1850's, a right to take their slave property into federal territories in the west. that third right, which white southerners claimed in the 1840's and 1850's, was the most controversial, and it threatened to split the nation up -- apart. theertainly changed

political and party dynamics, but ultimately, this issue goes to the supreme court of the united states in 1857. what happens in 1857 in the famous case, of course, of dred scott was that chief justice roger b todd he tried to settle this issue of the rights of slaveholder's. at the same time, though, he speaks to this issue of the rights of african-americans, and he deals with that in these infamous words spoken in 1857, write? they had, for more than a , been regarded as being of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race. so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was

bound to respect and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. so no rights for black people and absolute rights for slaveholders. in this famous case, "the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the constitution." by 1857, everything was on the side of slaveholder's and their rights. the weight of history, tradition, law, precedent, and now, finally, a ruling of the supreme court of the united states. , when abraham lincoln

ran for president, he accepted two out of three of those rights that were actually claimed by white southerners. he said when he was sworn in in march 1861 that he would not interfere with slavery where it already existed, recognizing southerners' rights to hold slaves in the south. he also pledged that he would enforce the fugitive slave law to recapture fugitives in the north. it was only on that third right, the issue of it slaveholders had the right to take slaves into western territories -- it was only that right that abraham lincoln was challenging, and questioning. 1861 what clear in abraham lincoln would actually do, but once again, from the point of view of white

southerners, a threat to one of these rights in their minds was a threat to all of their rights as slaveholders. the end of 1860 and early 1861, white southerners secede, and they seceded to protect slaveholders' rights, not states rights. ok. challenge to this whole pro-slavery constitutional order that has been upheld by the supreme court. most of it is affirmed by president abraham lincoln, and , a new viewr comes of the constitution and of constitutional values and of the founding of the united states

comes to the forefront. abouta way of thinking the constitution and the founding that i call black constitutionalism. what happens during wartime is that african-americans put forth their own interpretation of the founding. they are not simply doing this during wartime. this stretches way back into the late 18th century, starting with african-american activists in places like philadelphia, led by individuals such as absalom and later, james fortune, who writes these words in 1813 -- "we hold this truth to be self-evident, that god created all men equal" it's one of the most prominent features of the declaration of independence.

and in that glorious fabric of collected wisdom, our noble constitution. this idea embraces the indian and the european, the savage and the saint, the peruvian and the lapland are, the white man and whateveran, and measures are adopted, subversive of this estimable privilege are theirect violation of letter and spirit of our constitution. in 1813, he is putting forth this black constitutional argument that holds forth with black activists in the north, .specially during wartime this argument will be picked up and, of course, will be used to challenge the chief justice's

view. in january of 1862, to the words of john rock -- understand, this is january of 1862. we are barely eight months into the war. there's no emancipation proclamation. amendment, and yet, at this early stage in the , african-american activists are making this claim not only for freedom and military sharee, but for an equal of the constitutional heritage. 75,000 freeman capable of 750,000 slavesd wild with the enthusiasm caused by the dawn of the glorious opportunity of being able to strike a genuine blow for freedom will be a power that white men will be bound to

, challenging roger tawney, right? let the people of the united treat do their duty and us as the people of all other nations, treat us as men, and if they will do this, our last drop of blood is ready to be sacrificed in defense of the liberty of this country. -- ifsten to what he says you continue to deny us our rights and spurn our offers except as meals, colored men will be worse than fools to take up arms at all -- spurn our offers except as menials. linking military service to the

full panoply of rights under the declaration of independence and the constitution and this notion of christian brotherhood under the fatherhood of god. of of that language is part black constitutionalism. it is a constant theme as we look at what is happening during wartime. doinglack activists are is they are creating a new , a newse of rights discourse of rights challenging that notion of the rights of slaveholders that had been dominant in the antebellum period and now claiming all of those rights for themselves. in october 1864, in syracuse, a convention, one of many of these efforts on the organizelack people to , and they organized in ,onvention where they debate

they argue, they vote, and they issue a set of resolutions. that constitutional process, that orderly process, that process ismerican part of black constitutionalism. in syracuse, in october 1864, once again, there's no 18th amendment yet, right? -- "here these words were we born" -- and hear them taking issue with the fact that african-americans ought to leave the united states. we were born. for this country our fathers and brothers have fought, and here we hope to remain in the full franchiseof an manhood and its dignities. and they also then defined what wes a portion of deem to be our rights as men, as

patriots, as citizens, and as children of the common father. once again in october of 1864. so african-americans are creating during wartime a new discourse of rights, pushing the for emancipation, yes, for black military service, yes, absolutely, and finally, also, for all of those rights -- .ivil, political, social the whole notion of 19th century rights are being claimed by black people. andrew johnson had a different way of understanding all of this, and we heard some of this yesterday. johnson, to his credit, had been

the owner of a small number of slaves, whom he freed during the war, and ultimately then was an advocate, as we heard yesterday, as wartime military governor of emancipation in tennessee. he was also an advocate of the 13th amendment of the constitution. ahnson thought that this was revolution -- and it was. johnson, that was where the revolution ended, but for thek constitutionalists, revolution was just beginning with emancipation. things were just starting. johnson thought it was all over the 13th had been actually ratified. that was, of course, the argument then during reconstruction, but black organizing continues.

in 1865 -- so this is after johnson is president. the free people of tennessee gather in a convention in nashville. these are the words of the -- reverend james d lynch -- "we have met the to impress upon the white men of of the united states, and of the world, that we are part and parcel of the and alsorepublic," from that same meeting in 1865, a former soldier who had been at fort pickering, sergeant henry j want the rights guaranteed by the infinite .rchitect for these rights, we labor. for them, we will die. , the uniformd one

is its badge. let us work faithfully until that end." finally, in september of 1865, in the national equal rights league meeting of september, they called for an amendment to the constitution, prohibiting any legislation against any civilized portion of the inhabitants, native lauren or naturalized, on account of race or color. of course, what comes of lack organizing and black conventions and black constitutionalism are constitutional changes, ultimately. the 13th amendment is ratified at the end of 1865 ending

slavery, but based on this push and based on this redefinition of rights that had been going on for several years, but especially during wartime, the 14th amendment, which sounds a little bit similar to the words from the equald rights league in 1865, right? offers citizenship to all people born in this country and protects from state interference the privileges and immunities, equal protection of the law and due process of the law in section one of the 14th amendment. the 14th we know that amendment was passed in the ofse, in congress, in june 1866 just about five or six weeks after the memphis massacre, and congressman

made much ofens the violence in memphis in arguing for the passage of the 14th, right? the screamsrence to and groans of the dying victims at memphis, and this violence and this argument helped to make andible then the passage ultimate ratification of the 14th amendment and of course, a few years later, the 15th amendment. surely, these 46 victims at the hands of mobs were martyrs for the cause of civil rights, but we would be mistaken if we african-americans only as victims of white violence during this time.

they were active proponents of their own vision of , blackutionally quality constitutionalism, and it was this vision that helped to push the agenda for rights forward during the war and after. it pushed the republicans in ofgress toward the passage the 14th amendment and the 15th amendment and, of course, the passage of the enforcement act of 1870. one of the most significant aspects of all of these constitutional changes is that they all had enforcement clauses . this is the second section of the 13th amendment, the second section of the 15th amendment and the fifth section of the 14th amendment, but they all basically gave new powers to

congress to enforce these measures. by limiting state power and giving more power to the federal government to protect these rights then, a constitutional revolution had taken place. this is how frederick douglass "one of the70 -- most remarkable features of this grand revolution is its .horoughness never was revolution more complete. nothing has been left her time. the most exacting could not ask more than we have got. the more urgent could not have .emanded it more promptly we have always ask and more than was expected."

and 1872 under president grant, who greatestlly was our civil rights president from abraham lincoln to lyndon b. johnson -- under president grant in 1871 and 1872, there is a significant effort to bring to justice in south carolina .embers of the ku klux klan even more significantly in the next few years, in 1873 and 1874, we see the peak of federal enforcement of all of these constitutional changes. cases are brought into federal courts in 1873 and 1874. let me come back to my questions then idly. i think that the proper way to frame this is black

constitutionalism versus versus .hite violence this turns into a paradigm for reconstruction. i might put it more simply and somewhat more crudely by saying this -- while blacks organized into conventions, whites mobs.zed into klans and the memphis massacre and other were partisodes then of this reconstruction era, but i would argue that we should not lose sight of the truly revolutionary nature of the shift, a shift from slaveholders period,n the antebellum

protected by law, protected by the supreme court, protected by all of the weight and authority and resources of the federal government in 1860 -- that's how things stood. , they 1870, human rights rights of those who had previously been treated only as objects, only as property -- their rights were being protected and upheld in federal court. so the debate, the discourse had changed. it would now be possible to speak of human rights rather and just property rights the full power of the federal government, when it chose to use that power, could be wielded on the side of enforcing human in order to combat white

violence. finally, african-americans, through their insistence on claiming this american , i wouldional heritage argue, made reconstruction truly revolutionary. thank you. [applause] ms. van zelm: thank you so much to all of our panelists, and i'm so side we have gone so long and i know you all want to get to lunch, but our question-and-answer sessions have in the highlight of our conference so far. pulling in the trajectory of american history, the violence, workers, political rights, and, constitutional

evolutions of our country through these wonderful developments during this time, so i want to go immediately to a couple of questions and make sure we do have time for that. thank you. >> when i stood up and i hear things like erasure, white , white man's -- a white manights has to be bound to respect, i sit up and think -- my question is when you think about the psychology of the white , in they then and now 21st century, why the violence and why the fear in the 21st century? that's my question.

who would like to take that one who wouldan zelm: like to take that one on? [laughter] ms. emberton: this really is not an adequate response and it's very brief, and in some ways, i'm drying on what has been said about mississippi in the 1940's and 1950's. there comes a point in immobilizing movement where the violence does not matter. it's not that it does not kill people, but it does not stop immobilizing. fororically, people look those moments. there are moments when it is effective in trying to figure out what underlies the difference from the standpoint of mobilizing communities. the really important and is muching question

more significant for our community organizers to try to figure out, but in some ways, it is the ineffectiveness perpetuating repetition. i will say in terms of what you mentioned about white fear, white rage in particular, i think in our current moment, i have often much about our national political culture since president obama was elected in 2008 reminds me so much of what happened after reconstruction, what tim is talking about with white reaction to the first black elected officials. you have your first black congressman, your first black senators, and the kinds of criticisms that just look to us now as sort of these

off-the-wall hate-filled shrill degradation and corruption and how the inclusion of african-americans in the political process is somehow polluting the process itself, and those reactions in so many ways, as someone who has studied that, i have seen much of that rearing its ugly head since 2008. i think in some ways, in terms of having an african-american -- one african-american person in a very prominent position of power representing the entire country, right -- he is everyone's president -- has called into, you know, existence some of those very old animosities that we also see. another kind of analogous moment in the 1860's and 1870's when

you have black people for the first time claiming political power and claiming to be members and citizens on equal footing with other people. >> i would just add that if you look at the larger scope of reconstruction violence, it is most prominent when there's a lot of black office holding and mobilizing and voting. in that sense, the memphis massacre does not necessarily the larger pattern of reconstruction violence because it was in louisiana. it was in south carolina. it was in mississippi where you had the largest number of african-americans who were actually voting and sort of mobilizing to hold office and where black political power was

greatest was where white violence was also the worst. think that goes to your point, that having african-americans holding political power was such an inront to white southerners the 19th century. this came up in the previous panel, the long presence of african-american soldiers during the war in memphis. hannah rose and talked about some of those men came to the women's houses and asked with her husband's work, and if he is a filter, as if some of those women were being targeted specifically because their husbands had been soldiers. again, it is the same kind of thing. voteare not mobilizing to yet, but it is the presence of african-american men in u.s. uniforms purporting to represent

the united states as a member of its military. that in and of itself was a revolutionary and radical thing for a lot of, particularly white southerners to be confronted with during the civil war. breakn zelm: i'm going to and very quickly. lunch is laid out in the fountain view room, so i'm going to suggest we take another to or three questions down here and take our conversation upstairs. sound their? ? sound fair >> i thoroughly enjoyed the presentation today. i have an observation today about the soldiers and whatnot. i think it's interesting that we have a lot of white scholars that are interested in the period.uction

, whok at robert charles killed several white police officers, and they started a big or theooking for him, year before in the till was lynched -- and it till -- emmett lynched, a man who killed ishares deputy and was able to escape the electric chair. i think now is the time for us to have a rhythm change and change the narrative and show the people who actually fought back. there are so many stories like that. my folks are from south carolina on my paternal grandmother's side. her father had to kill a white man to protect his wife. had to leave south carolina and change his last name. i would not be here if some of my people did not fight back. i want to hear that story about fighting back. thank you.

ms. van zelm: there was a so-called race riot in tennessee in which african-americans who were celebrating emancipation shortly after the fourth of july in 1867, and they did fight back. they did shoot back against those who had tried to shoot at them. that was in 1867. >> my name is samuel turner. dr.rect this question to emberton. did i understand you to say that good government was a code word for white supremacy for most of these groups? ms. emberton: you had a lot of conventions and things coming out of the south organizing under the banner of court" good

government, the application being that black dissipation in state legislatures and office holding had corrupted. the carpetbagger regimes were full of corruption and malfeasance and that kind of rhetoric and discourse spread throughout the united states. >> from over here, people complain about the government -- big government. most of the conservative groups. would you say they were also this type of -- ms. emberton: there are some parallels because what you see happening in the 1870's as far as the political tide changing. some of the people i talked had at one time been very active supporters of civil rights and radical had come to sort of disavow it and say it is a

bad thing. they do so on the basis of the idea that the regimes have been corrupt and that the federal government had become too powerful, right? powers become too centralized, so you see a lot of this in court cases in the 1870's. the slaughterhouse cases, for instance, trying to roll back some of the consolidated power that tim had talked about that these constitutional amendments had now given the enforcement power to the federal government. i am very suspicious of people who always complain about .ig government it brings back all these memories. i remember when the south was and in the 1960's when the civil rights bill was

turned the south republican. that is very suspicious to me, and i have been real suspicious of any republican or anyone who talks about big government. it makes me think that there is something behind that other than complaining about the size of the government. ms. van zelm: do we have one or two more questions? >> before we go up stairs, i wanted to ask dr. carole embert on that marker that you were showing? that was an: memorial marker or tombstone to three of the white men who work actually part of the perpetrators at the colfax .assacre

a pretty lopsided battle between the friedman a colfax and the whites who were members and at leastleague one of the white men who were killed were killed by "friendly men whout those three lost their lives -- the count is really unreliable. ofre are higher estimations the number of black lives lost at colfax, but at least 59 african-american men were killed there, but those three white men became sortir lives of martyrs to the white league or the white supremacist cause in the state, and that's what the words on that marker said, that they died giving their lives for the white people of louisiana. >> i have one question, and i will make it pretty quick.

it's really kind of a yes or no question. i would like to ask dr. emberton about this. fact really struck by the that white supremacy was enabled .y the violence that is what kind of created the culture, the tribalism, if you will. the question i have is another panelist mentioned the idea of intersection analogy. all these other things that reinforce the ability for this kind of viewpoint to sustain itself over time. did that exist for the white supremacist and that later ofiod in terms contradictions like justice, compassion, all the religious values you get in christianity? were there stories that enabled complete so i could be

self-assured as a white supremacist? ms. emberton: i don't think i'm sure what you are asking. were there people who continue to resist this movement? >> no, there is an inherent contradiction in what they are proposing and what they did, right? i wondered if there was a story that handled every one of those contradictions. i'm not sure i'm with you on what the contradictions are. >> well, if i sit and lynch people, i'm not acting as a very good christian. ms. emberton: but they saw themselves as perfectly good christians. >> right, so were the stories -- oh, right.n: certainly as a lynching becomes much more -- when we actually moved from these kinds of massacres and spectacles to the southerners go

to view these as groups, right? crowds. they take pictures and are proud to be there. they do not have any sense that what they are doing is anti-christian. they see it as a form of justice that is biblically sanctioned. the internal contradictions that we might pick up on i don't think bothered them in the least. ms. van zelm: final question. there werehis year, so-called radical republicans, and i know there's a lot of citizens him today -- cynicism today about the role of white least in inequality, at that's what i perceive, but for example, the civil war is one by a black and white alliance against the confederacy. can you talk briefly about the

black and white alliance during reconstruction, or just about maybe some white heroes in terms fostering this legislation, which as you and knowledge, was very controversial at the time and did take some measure of courage for the white people who were saying give you quality to african-americans. >> just a brief comment from inside the union leagues, one of the things that fascinated me was the number of small human farmers-- small yeoman who participated in some component of these small organizing independent organizations. now they are inhabiting what is there he deeply racialized

ground. they did not participate in all of the activities. i did not run across any occasions where white people marched with the marching companies on route to the polls. asymmetry ine terms of the relationship between the black members of the union leagues and their white affiliates. often they were illiterate. they provided a six skills. that thehe contract members had signed with a landowner. for of them were targets vigilante organizations. get ad say that we glimpse of this kind of organizing tradition, at least a those relationships, and tight spot and a difficult moment. well-intentioned abolitionists that had slaves been able to school them a little bit and draw them into the community never would have happened.

even with the emancipator's, like a woman who takes up residence in the island, coming to teach the surrounding text slaves, her first act is to evict an elderly black former slave woman who was squatting in that she intends to inhabit. even with good intentions, you get glimpses of these kind of on the ground contradictions and tensions. there remains some asymmetry, there is certainly, at least in these kind of local political units, a party organization, precisely because it interaction on difficult terrain, that you have described. ms. emberton: in the deep south, you have what i talked about, these fusion tickets. they are moderate democrats, wanting to have some political

power, so you could argue that these cooperation is tickets who were trying to court black votes and are sort of welcoming them into these fusion parties or cooperation is parties -- you know, they are not doing it because they unnecessarily motivated by any grand sense of interracial justice, but the fact is they sort of recognize what the political reality is. they see a moment where, you know, alliances can be formed, .nd they do that in some ways, because of those alliances and the threat of the alliance, particularly populist motivateshat really the white people to try to stamp out any possibility that these kind of alliances might grow into something more. ms. van zelm: thank you all so much for speaking with us. enjoy your lunch and a final

round of applause for our panel. [applause] >> see our upcoming schedule or watch a program. c-span.org/history. , carolures and history abouton teaches andersonville prison and the postwar trial of its commander henry wirz. the class is about an hour. welcome everyone today. ,e will talk about henry wirz