- Mar 11, 2015
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Unofortunately for us as blacks, there has always been 1 -2 idiots who thought that if they went along and did what whites wanted them to do, everyhing would turn out for the good. ISAIAH T. MONTGOMERY is one of the early examples of a sellout.
Isaiah Thornton Montgomery was an African American leader best known for founding the all-black town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi and for his public endorsement of black disenfranchisement.
In 1887, Montgomery and cousin Benjamin Green co-founded Mound Bayou. For 25 years, this 30,000-acre colony in Northwest Mississippi was home to nearly 800 black farmers. Montgomery was Mound Bayou’s patriarch, protecting it from white terrorism through political cooperation with white supremacist politicians and businessmen. In 1890, for example, while serving as the only black delegate to the Mississippi Constitutional Convention, he publicly endorsed the disenfranchisement of 123,000 black voters, hoping to trade their rights for protection for Mound Bayou from neighboring white encroachments and violence. His accommodation to disfranchisement was praised as pragmatic by white political leaders North and South but he was harshly criticized by northern black leaders like T. Thomas Fortune. One rising black southern leader, Booker T. Washington, however, was inspired by Montgomery’s actions and promoted the strategy in his Atlanta Compromise speech in 1895.
www.blackpast.org
Notice that whites of his time loved Montgomery. Why? Because Montgomery chose to vote against empowering blacks to vote thereby making certain whites had all the power. This is one example of the long tradition part of the white community has for supporting blacks who work to maintain white supermacy.
Isaiah Thornton Montgomery was an African American leader best known for founding the all-black town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi and for his public endorsement of black disenfranchisement.
In 1887, Montgomery and cousin Benjamin Green co-founded Mound Bayou. For 25 years, this 30,000-acre colony in Northwest Mississippi was home to nearly 800 black farmers. Montgomery was Mound Bayou’s patriarch, protecting it from white terrorism through political cooperation with white supremacist politicians and businessmen. In 1890, for example, while serving as the only black delegate to the Mississippi Constitutional Convention, he publicly endorsed the disenfranchisement of 123,000 black voters, hoping to trade their rights for protection for Mound Bayou from neighboring white encroachments and violence. His accommodation to disfranchisement was praised as pragmatic by white political leaders North and South but he was harshly criticized by northern black leaders like T. Thomas Fortune. One rising black southern leader, Booker T. Washington, however, was inspired by Montgomery’s actions and promoted the strategy in his Atlanta Compromise speech in 1895.
Isaiah T. Montgomery (1847-1924) •
Isaiah Thornton Montgomery was an African American leader best known for founding the all-black town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi and for his public endorsement of black disenfranchisement. Montgomery was born enslaved on May 21, 1847 to Benjamin Thornton and Mary Lewis Montgomery on the...
www.blackpast.org
Notice that whites of his time loved Montgomery. Why? Because Montgomery chose to vote against empowering blacks to vote thereby making certain whites had all the power. This is one example of the long tradition part of the white community has for supporting blacks who work to maintain white supermacy.
