Category: White Terror
On the Use of the Word “Terrorism” to Describe Violence During Reconstruction: Anachronism?
I am sometimes asked if my using the word “terrorism” to describe racial or political violence during the Reconstruction Era is anachronistic. It isn’t. I…
Watch Video of Armed Militiamen Confronting Pastor Wearing Black Lives Matter Shirt at Gettysburg
The far-right militiamen who assembled fully armed at Gettysburg on July 4th mobbed a Methodist pastor in the National Cemetery there because he was wearing…
The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory by Adam H. Domby
The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory by Adam H. Domby published by University of Virginia Press, 272 pages (2020) Hardcover…
Man in BLM T-Shirt “Removed” from Gettysburg Cemetery Armed Right-Wing Militia and KKK Mobilize to Occupy Gettysburg for July 4
On Saturday July Fourth a man was removed from Gettysburg National Cemeterywhere he was visiting the grave of an ancestor because he was wearing a…
New Report Says 2,000 Blacks Lynched During Reconstruction Era
A new report from the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) says that from the end of the Civil War in 1865 until the traditional close of…
Confederate Veteran William Simkins Describes His Role in the Ku Klux Klan
William Simkins was a professor of law at the University of Texas in Austin on Thanksgiving in 1914 when he decided to use his speech…
In 1863 When a Black Man Refused to be Whipped Was He a Murderer if He Killed His Enslaver?
Here is an incident that I read about recently set during the early period of Reconstruction while the Civil War was still raging. I found…
How Did American History Textbooks Remember the Ku Klux Klan?
The recent book Remembering Reconstruction has an essay titled “The Cultural Work of the Ku-Klux Klan in US History Textbooks, 1883–2015” by Elaine Parsons. The…
Smithsonian: Free Resources for Understanding the History of Racism in the U.S.
The Smithsonian has put together a great collection of free resources for understanding the history of racism in the United States. There are links to…
When Grant Literally Decapitated Seymour (at least Cartoon Grant did)! Nov. 1868
By the evening of November 3, 1868 it was pretty clear to most informed observers that Ulysses S. Grant had been elected president. If you…