White House and Church House Bigots
The South’s long-lasting system of racial management was the scene of countless struggles against the system of white supremacy that ruled America for hundreds of years. Within the borders of “Dixie,” the rules of racial etiquette ruled supreme and any violation of those rules would often mean beatings, hangings, and being burned out by mobs of racist whites. Southern bigots chased out those who opposed racism by calling these heroes “Yankees, Carpetbaggers, and “N” Lovers.” After Reconstruction, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, white supremacists put together an effort to spread and extend segregation and racial hatred across the country and even to other countries. Even presidents went along with this hatred.
There were no laws preventing whites from eating where they pleased or voting for the most part unless one was a poor white. There were no laws that forced Blacks into inferior segregated schools. There were laws that prevented blacks from going to “white only theatres” and laws that prevented Blacks from worshiping in white only churches. These atrocious crimes were perpetuated by a white supremacist mentality that ruled from the White House to the church house. It was worse in Dixie, the southern states, as the name is synonymous with racism not just “southern heritage.” When one spoke of the South it was understood that you were speaking of a racist country different from other areas of the U.S. Racist songs like “I Wish I Were In Dixie,” and “When Johnny Reb Comes Marching Home” were signals that one had better be careful in this part of the United States. Bigoted and ignorant idiots ruled the cities and state legislatures.
Being careful meant not looking at white women, keeping your eyes down when a white approached on the sidewalk, and getting in the street if a white approached. These rules were enforced in America for hundreds of years and remained in force when Civil Rights workers began to dismantle the Jim Crow South in the 1950s and 1960s. Even after slavery was abolished with the passage of the 13th Amendment Southern racists found a way to violate federal law by having sheriffs and plantation owners work deals with the local court system to falsely jail and imprison thousands of blacks on trumped up charges of vagrancy forcing them to return to the farms to work off fines. They were beaten and caged like animals all in the name of “southern hospitality—hospitality for white only.
Racist whites called the problems of African Americans the “race problem.” Their final solution was to create a segregated society where blacks were placed in a certain box that included playing sports and playing music but no academic education. When it came to academic areas the Dixie bigots made sure that blacks went to inferior schools that did not have a solid curriculum of academics. Instead of completely murdering the black population, as was done to the Native Americans, racist bigots like Robert E. Lee and others sought to produce a black population that was servile and accommodating to the rules of white supremacy.
These ideas were reinforced by a racist southern U.S. President named Woodrow Wilson who moved into the White House in 1915, the same year that at least two hundred African Americans were lynched. President Wilson introduced some twenty bills designed to maintain racist segregation on trains, prevent whites from marrying blacks, and other racist laws in Washington, DC. When WWI started Wilson sought to draft African Americans in disproportionate numbers so “white boys wouldn’t have to die.”
