Three More Times the US Government was Anti-Racist
It wasn't always, completely and totally about white supremacy!
You wouldn’t know by the current efforts to make America whatever again, but there have been times in this country when government institutions were actually interested in societal progress! In fact, some even deliberately attempted to help Black people, like that time we kicked the State of Georgia out of the Union for being too racist.
So, please, reminisce with me again about the good ol’ days of Three More Times the US Government was Anti-Racist!
The Department of Justice
This week the Department of Justice announced that they have ended police reform deals made in the aftermath of the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. This is to be expected in a country with its particular relationship to Black people. But, believe it or not, the Department of Justice began as anti-racist. In fact, it’s first mission was to protect Black rights. How did we stray so far from our default? Maybe the answer is in…
The Department of Education
A whole lot of places in this country didn’t like being told to integrate their school systems. Many outright refused. That’s why, in 1979—fifteen years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964—Congress established the Department of Education, as they said, “To strengthen the Federal commitment to ensuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual.”
We can now see the Department being destroyed from within by the very forces it was trying to fight. But, honestly, we should’ve seen that coming because of what happened to…
The first Department of Education
Yes, there was a Department of Education before 1979 and yes, there’s a reason we don’t talk about it. 111 years earlier, in 1868, the first Department was established to create a national education system. But the nation now included free Black people and white politicians across the country—not just in the South—really didn’t like the idea of educating us. The Department only lasted a single year.
It turns out there’s a pretty straight line from allowing Confederates to return to leadership after the Civil War to our present-day circumstances. Maybe white supremacy isn’t the best priority for a nation? Hard to tell.
https://www.history.com/articles/14th-amendment-section-three-disqualification-clause-confederates
https://www.history.com/articles/department-education-andrew-johnson-reconstruction
When Georgia got kicked out of the Union for being too racist.