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I have said this more than once, blacks' grievance with America left slavery as the sole issue pretty much the day after blacks were informed of emancipation. We were freed from slavery even though we received no compensation for the economic damage caused. Today’s grievances include not just slavery but the 100 years after emancipation and modern forms of racism. Simply put, human rights violations against blacks did not end after slavery. Dr. Carol Anderson points this out in detail in her book, “White Rage.”
Dr. Anderson chronicles the many methods whites used in the years after slavery to restrict the right for blacks to move around freely in America. Whites in the south used any means necessary to discourage blacks from moving north. In the north, whites terrorized blacks competing for jobs with better pay and those trying to live in majority white neighborhoods.
In July 1865, Circular 13 was issued by General Oliver Howard fully authorizing the lease of 40-acre plots of land to the newly freed blacks. As a result of this document, 40,000 formerly enslaved people began work on land that now belonged to them. But President Andrew Johnson killed these two orders and removed those 40,000 blacks from that land while destroying any income they could make. He gave the land back to whites. Johnson pardoned most of the confederate leaders, allowing them to regain power. By doing this, Johnson unleashed a reign of terror on blacks that was nothing short of attempted ethnic cleansing.
On the evening of Saturday, July 19th, 1919, in Washington D.C., a mob of mad drunken white World War 1 veterans invaded a black neighborhood because of a rumor spread about a black man assaulting the wife of a white navy man.54 Those mad white men proceeded to beat all the blacks they found.
The Omaha Race Riot occurred on September 28–29, 1919. Three conditions: black property acquisition, economic anxiety, and black male sexual aggression claims have been the standard for white violence against blacks throughout American history. The Omaha Riots met at least 2 of the three conditions. The eventual lynching of Will Brown began with reports in local media about the alleged rape of a woman on September 25, 1919. Brown was lynched, shot up after he was dead, dragged through the streets of Omaha, and set on fire. He had committed no crime.
On December 23, 1945, Mr. and Mrs. H. O’Day Short and their two little children were burned to death in Fontana, California.
For the first five years after WW2 in Chicago alone, there were over 300 documented acts of terror by whites against blacks who tried living in or near majority-white neighborhoods.65 In 1951, a black man named Harvey Clark and his family tried to move into the Cicero neighborhood of Chicago. A white mob vandalized his home and burned his furniture in the front yard. The police did nothing.
In 1955, there were more than 200 recorded acts of violence against blacks by whites in Philadelphia
In 1964, blacks again tried renting an apartment in Cicero, their apartment was vandalized. Police acted this time. They entered the apartment, took out the furniture, and told the people they were evicted.
During the same period in Detroit, there were over 200 acts of terror to stop black families from moving to the suburbs.
In 15 years from 1950 to 1965, more than 100 recorded bombings of black-owned homes occurred in Los Angeles.
In 1987, another black family tried moving into Cicero. They got gunfire and firebombs.71 Again, that was in 1987, not 1887.
Consistently since the end of slavery, there has been a section of the white community who violently resisted the efforts of blacks to live successfully in America. During this time, prosperous blacks faced acts of terror while thriving black communities got destroyed by mobs of angry whites who felt they were losing out because blacks had acquired the same things whites had. This kind of terrorism has gone long ignored in understanding the brutality and hardcore resistance to black freedom in America.
After slavery ended, southern whites went on a campaign of what can only be called ethnic cleansing. The federal government turned tail and ran by establishing a legal principle whereby the federal government did not have to enforce the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments by using states’ rights. Apartheid became the law of the land due to the Plessy decision. Blacks tried to escape the oppressive conditions in the south by coming north, but they found just how united the states were relative to white supremacy. At every turn, whenever blacks tried reaching for what this country claims to promise, we have run into a brick wall, or more accurately, a white mob.
And I didn't include the government programs helping whites that blacks were excluded from.
July 19, 1919: White Mobs in Uniform Attack African Americans — Who Fight Back — in Washington, D.C., July 19, 1919: White Mobs in Uniform Attack African Americans — Who Fight Back — in Washington, D.C. - Zinn Education Project
Anthony Dittmar, Omaha Race Riot, Omaha Race Riot – Discovering 1919
B.C Franklin, The Tulsa Race Riots and Three of It’s Victims, A Long-Lost Manuscript Contains a Searing Eyewitness Account of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921
Survivors of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre share eyewitness accounts, Survivors of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre share eyewitness accounts - The Cincinnati Herald
William L. Patterson, We Charge Genocide, 4th edition, International Publishers Co., Inc., New York, 2017 pp.60-61
Peter Salwen, A "Northern Lynching," Remembering the Trenton Six Case, August 6, 1998, "A Northern Lynching" - the "Trenton Six" case, 50 years later
Sharon Schlegel, Harrowing case of the "Trenton Six", The Times of Trenton, Jan 28, 2012, Updated Mar 30, 2019, https://www.nj.com/times opinion/2012/01/harrowing_case_of_the_trenton.html
Richard Rothstein, Color of Law, Liverright Publishing, pp.144, 2018
Jae Jones, Cicero Race Riot: Mob of 4,000 Destroys Apartment Building with One Black Family Tenants, November 14, 2018, Cicero Race Riot: Mob of 4,000 Destroys Apartment Building with One Black Family Tenantsblack-family-tenants/
Charles Abrams, The Time Bomb That Exploded in Cicero: Segregated Housing's Inevitable Dividend, The Time Bomb That Exploded in Cicero:Segregated Housing's Inevitable Dividend
Christy Clark-Pujara and Anna-Lisa Cox, How the Myth of a Liberal North Erases a Long History of White Violence, smithsonianmag.com, August 27, 2020, How the Myth of a Liberal North Erases a Long History of White Violence
Dr. Anderson chronicles the many methods whites used in the years after slavery to restrict the right for blacks to move around freely in America. Whites in the south used any means necessary to discourage blacks from moving north. In the north, whites terrorized blacks competing for jobs with better pay and those trying to live in majority white neighborhoods.
In July 1865, Circular 13 was issued by General Oliver Howard fully authorizing the lease of 40-acre plots of land to the newly freed blacks. As a result of this document, 40,000 formerly enslaved people began work on land that now belonged to them. But President Andrew Johnson killed these two orders and removed those 40,000 blacks from that land while destroying any income they could make. He gave the land back to whites. Johnson pardoned most of the confederate leaders, allowing them to regain power. By doing this, Johnson unleashed a reign of terror on blacks that was nothing short of attempted ethnic cleansing.
On the evening of Saturday, July 19th, 1919, in Washington D.C., a mob of mad drunken white World War 1 veterans invaded a black neighborhood because of a rumor spread about a black man assaulting the wife of a white navy man.54 Those mad white men proceeded to beat all the blacks they found.
The Omaha Race Riot occurred on September 28–29, 1919. Three conditions: black property acquisition, economic anxiety, and black male sexual aggression claims have been the standard for white violence against blacks throughout American history. The Omaha Riots met at least 2 of the three conditions. The eventual lynching of Will Brown began with reports in local media about the alleged rape of a woman on September 25, 1919. Brown was lynched, shot up after he was dead, dragged through the streets of Omaha, and set on fire. He had committed no crime.
On December 23, 1945, Mr. and Mrs. H. O’Day Short and their two little children were burned to death in Fontana, California.
For the first five years after WW2 in Chicago alone, there were over 300 documented acts of terror by whites against blacks who tried living in or near majority-white neighborhoods.65 In 1951, a black man named Harvey Clark and his family tried to move into the Cicero neighborhood of Chicago. A white mob vandalized his home and burned his furniture in the front yard. The police did nothing.
In 1955, there were more than 200 recorded acts of violence against blacks by whites in Philadelphia
In 1964, blacks again tried renting an apartment in Cicero, their apartment was vandalized. Police acted this time. They entered the apartment, took out the furniture, and told the people they were evicted.
During the same period in Detroit, there were over 200 acts of terror to stop black families from moving to the suburbs.
In 15 years from 1950 to 1965, more than 100 recorded bombings of black-owned homes occurred in Los Angeles.
In 1987, another black family tried moving into Cicero. They got gunfire and firebombs.71 Again, that was in 1987, not 1887.
Consistently since the end of slavery, there has been a section of the white community who violently resisted the efforts of blacks to live successfully in America. During this time, prosperous blacks faced acts of terror while thriving black communities got destroyed by mobs of angry whites who felt they were losing out because blacks had acquired the same things whites had. This kind of terrorism has gone long ignored in understanding the brutality and hardcore resistance to black freedom in America.
After slavery ended, southern whites went on a campaign of what can only be called ethnic cleansing. The federal government turned tail and ran by establishing a legal principle whereby the federal government did not have to enforce the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments by using states’ rights. Apartheid became the law of the land due to the Plessy decision. Blacks tried to escape the oppressive conditions in the south by coming north, but they found just how united the states were relative to white supremacy. At every turn, whenever blacks tried reaching for what this country claims to promise, we have run into a brick wall, or more accurately, a white mob.
And I didn't include the government programs helping whites that blacks were excluded from.
July 19, 1919: White Mobs in Uniform Attack African Americans — Who Fight Back — in Washington, D.C., July 19, 1919: White Mobs in Uniform Attack African Americans — Who Fight Back — in Washington, D.C. - Zinn Education Project
Anthony Dittmar, Omaha Race Riot, Omaha Race Riot – Discovering 1919
B.C Franklin, The Tulsa Race Riots and Three of It’s Victims, A Long-Lost Manuscript Contains a Searing Eyewitness Account of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921
Survivors of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre share eyewitness accounts, Survivors of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre share eyewitness accounts - The Cincinnati Herald
William L. Patterson, We Charge Genocide, 4th edition, International Publishers Co., Inc., New York, 2017 pp.60-61
Peter Salwen, A "Northern Lynching," Remembering the Trenton Six Case, August 6, 1998, "A Northern Lynching" - the "Trenton Six" case, 50 years later
Sharon Schlegel, Harrowing case of the "Trenton Six", The Times of Trenton, Jan 28, 2012, Updated Mar 30, 2019, https://www.nj.com/times opinion/2012/01/harrowing_case_of_the_trenton.html
Richard Rothstein, Color of Law, Liverright Publishing, pp.144, 2018
Jae Jones, Cicero Race Riot: Mob of 4,000 Destroys Apartment Building with One Black Family Tenants, November 14, 2018, Cicero Race Riot: Mob of 4,000 Destroys Apartment Building with One Black Family Tenantsblack-family-tenants/
Charles Abrams, The Time Bomb That Exploded in Cicero: Segregated Housing's Inevitable Dividend, The Time Bomb That Exploded in Cicero:Segregated Housing's Inevitable Dividend
Christy Clark-Pujara and Anna-Lisa Cox, How the Myth of a Liberal North Erases a Long History of White Violence, smithsonianmag.com, August 27, 2020, How the Myth of a Liberal North Erases a Long History of White Violence
