Reconstruction never ended: How we got here from the Civil War, a thread:

[Saviolo]

This thread by Historian Heather Cox Richardson just went by on my twitter feed. I'm not going to copy and paste the whole thing, because it's long and has a bunch of pictures and links, so here's the first tweet in the thread:

Link to tweet

Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR)
@HC_Richardson

After the Civil War, heroic individuals rebuild their lives and rededicated the nation. At the same time, angry and desperate men warped our politics in ways that still echo.

Let's take a look at Reconstruction, shall we? /1

A really compelling through line of white supremacy and how it has been baked into the conservative playbook since at least the Civil War.

[cilla4progress]

1. Absolutely.

Feels like Civil War is still ongoing. Or at least reignited. Same alliances.

[SCantiGOP]

2. The South won the Civil War

It just took 100 years.

By the 1960s, using the seniority system (especially in the US Senate), Southern Congressmen chaired almost every important committee in Congress and had a stranglehold on the Democratic Party. This began to shift after the Dixiecrat walkout in 1948 culminated in Nixon’s Southen Strategy that had begun in earnest with Uber-racist Strom Thurmond’s defection to the GOP.

It was of little consequence to Southern political leaders that the general population - white as well as black - had endured a century of abject poverty and stagnant growth, since after the 100 years that same oligarchy controlled the political process and had the citizenry fanatically committed to maintaining the status quo to prevent any semblance of political and human rights to the black citizens of the region.

This system will not finally be extinguished until the current Trump/GOP cult is eradicated as a force in American politics.

[Voltaire2]

3. The actual reconstruction ended around 1878.

What followed was not reconstruction, it was the reconstitution of the old order.

[Buzz cook]

4. There is a recession after every war

The Civil War was no exception. The people of the North weren't interested in helping black folk when they had problems of their own.

At the same time congress was experiencing massive corruption and any noble ideas of helping freed slaves paled at the prospect of helping Credit Mobilier.

Keeping a standing army to protect against night riders and the clan wasn't popular either. And the pro Southern lost cause propaganda machine was cranking up without any opposition.