American History that They Don’t Want to Talk About
Black families that had to flee their homes when white supremacist vigilantes were numerous across the southern states including Texas. In the 1800s and later, Black families who had gained the right to vote during Reconstruction were terrorized when whites found out they were attempting to become free. Often, Black families would hear the sound of galloping horses as armed white supremacists were about to attack a family. They used coded language to hide their true intentions by talking amongst themselves and calling a racialized raid a “visit.” This would be no friendly social visit but one aimed at terrorizing a Black family to move or to intimidate them from voting. These terrorist raids were made of people from the same community and sometimes the sheriff and the mayor would be riding along in coverings over their faces.
Often when these racist terrorists would arrive, they would dismount from their horses and call out the name of the man they were looking for. If the wife came to the door she would be threatened with physical harm or death if she did not tell them where the husband was. These were not isolated incidents but routine terror throughout the South carried out by the Ku Klux Klan. These “visits” often evolved into horrid instances of brutality, whippings, torture, and death by hanging or burning. This took place even after the so-called emancipation and after Juneteenth. Racists whites were not about to obey the law of the 15th Amendment that supposedly gave Blacks the right to vote.
As Blacks went to the polls after the Civil War, white authorities recorded their names and addresses so that they could later attack them and their families to prevent them from voting.
However, Black freedom seekers kept coming to vote but the terror did not end. The safety of home ceased to exist and “night riders” with hoods attacked Blacks at home and often whenever they were seen just walking down some road. The dreams of Reconstruction and freedom during Juneteenth were crushed by these white supremacist terrorists. In Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama it was hell on earth as Blacks tried to exercise their right to vote and become equal citizens. In Texas and other southern states defeated Confederates organized militias, like some of the ones that exist today, to destroy Black rights by terror. Slave owners often refused to release enslaved people even after Juneteenth was announced. This was the way southern bigots were able to win the war for white supremacy that they did not win on the battle field. They put up Confederate monuments while carrying out savage acts of violence.
Black families saw death coming on a daily basis as they tried to vote or just be treated like human beings. This is the real story of American history that they want to pretend never happened. This other war was now the battle to deny Blacks their rights during Reconstruction which eventually led to Jim Crow Law that lasted for decades, and still has a presence in the criminal justice system and police abuse. The total history of Reconstruction must be taught, not just the sugar-coated version that appears in many history books. We need to explore the violence that took place and the authorities that drove the violence. White slave owners tried their best to pretend that owning human beings was not an act of war, as they wanted to pass on their wealth and fake history to their ancestors. We will no longer accept this.
