How many of those reading this have seen the 1915 D.W. Griffiths film BIRTH OF A NATION? This film is a classic. It is also a disgusting celebration of the Ku Klux Klan. Purporting to tell the story of both the Civil War and the Reconstruction era, this film presented the racist view of Reconstruction. Unfortunately, that was the view that dominated American historiography from 1900 to the 1960s. This analysis was known as the “Dunning School” after a professor at Columbia University William A. Dunning. He and his Ph D students developed a “story” about Reconstruction after the Civil War that had at its jumping off point the “inability” of black Americans to “handle” the right to vote and other political opportunities. This led, according to the writers in the Dunning School, to corruption, mismanagement of government, and social atrocities such as the legalization of intermarriage. Manipulated by people coming South (dubbed “carpetbaggers”) and white Southerners (dubbed scalawags) who joined with carpetbaggers and ignorant blacks to form “radical Reconstruction” governments, the freed slaves brought a reign of corruption and debauchery down on the South. Historian Claude Bowers summarized the views of the Dunning School in his 1929 book The Tragic Era, The Revolution After Lincoln. Some have argued that he wrote the book to flesh out the theme of Griffith’s movie.
The reality of the Reconstruction era was much different. Yes, there was corruption and mismanagement by some of the “radical Reconstruction” governments. But there was equal if not more corruption in the post-Civil War North. This was the era where the so-called robber barons rose to the top of various industries as the North industrialized. [There is actually a decent if journalistic summary by the writer Matthew Josephson entitled The Robber Barons. For a more detailed meticulous historical analysis see Ida Tarbell The History of the Great American Fortunes.]
The most important reality of “radical Reconstruction” is that black people got full Civil Rights and black men got the right to vote --- and that right was protected by federal troops until one by one, the white supremacist Democratic Party won back control of the governments of Southern states. Much of this struggle to win back control was enabled by the terrorist activities of the Ku Klux Klan. [I have routinely recommended Eric Foner’s monumental book Reconstruction, America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (NY: Harper and Row, 1988). Up until the 1960s, the only dissent from the Dunning School approach was W.E.B. DuBois’ class Black Reconstruction in America which was ignored by mainstream historians.] When black ex-slaves and their white allies in the Republican Party formed governments in the former Confederate states, they created the first systems of public education, and made efforts to bring the South into the 19th century with public works. For a brief moment, the promise of democratic self-government from the Declaration of Independence and Constitution (especially after the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments) was enjoyed by whites and blacks alike. The reality of “radical Reconstruction” was a far cry from the disgusting garbage in Birth of a Nation and books like The Tragic Era.
The film shows Blacks running amok with corruption and sexual advances against “pretty young white women.” There is one scene where a young Lillian Gish plays the role of a young girl from a Southern family who is pursued by a salacious black ex-soldier (played by a white man in blackface by the way). Afraid of being raped, she jumps off a cliff. In retaliation, a group of Ku Kluxers lynch the man who was pursuing her. (And the audience is supposed to cheer!)
At the macro level, the film shows the South being saved when the Ku Klux Klan rides to the rescue. The victory of white supremacy is depicted in one of the last scenes in the movie. On election day, blacks leave their cabins to vote, they are met by a group of Klansmen in full regalia. Seeing how dangerous it would be to vote, the blacks return to their cabins and white power in the South is preserved.
[For a modern discussion of the film --- both its cinematic contributions and its disgustingly racist distoritions of history, see Richard Brody in The New Yorker.]
Unfortunately, there is evidence that the popularity of the film when it was first released led to the re-creation of the “modern” (20th century) Ku Klux Klan which had a forceful presence in American politics in the 1920s, 30s and beyond. David Duke (yes THAT David Duke) spoke of the value of the Griffiths film for his recruiting efforts in the recent past.
Because I taught courses about American race relations during my academic career, I actually had to watch the film. I even bought it for my college library though I made sure that every student who watched it knew how disgusting it was before they saw it!
But why did I make a big deal about it in my commentary and why am I mentioning the movie and the distortion of history that dominated the historiography of Reconstruction at length in this written expansion? What’s any of this got to do with today?
Well, first of all, there are the eerie parallels today to the fears presented to American whites about what life was supposedly like in the American South when the depraved salacious blacks took over the governments and began to lust after white women and visit all sorts of corruption on the defeated South. Donald Trump is warning white suburban women that black folks are coming to destroy the suburbs. He is also claiming that the efforts to make it easier for people to vote by mail will open up a cascade of voter fraud --- just like the images in the Griffith movie of blacks voting numerous times and whites not being permitted to vote!
The relevance of the Griffiths movie might actually have been obvious to some who listened to my commentary. Trump and the Republicans wish there were a modern version of the Ku Klux Klan to keep black folks from voting – especially in possible swing states like North Carolina, Florida and even Georgia – not to mention in the urban areas in the “big three” swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. That’s why voter suppression became the name of the game as soon as the Supreme Court handed down a modern version of Plessy vs. Ferguson (the ruling the said segregation was constitutional despite the 14th Amendment – separate was fine as long as it was “equal.”). This modern Plessy was the Supreme Court decision in Shelby County vs. Holder (570 US 529 [2013]) which in effect eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
It is of course true that a blatant effort at voter suppression by individuals in KKK costumes probably would not even be attempted, let alone permitted today. Nevertheless, Trump has asked his supporters to go the polling places --- he specifically mentioned Philadelphia --- and watch carefully for people supposedly there voting illegally. If enough Trump supporters get close enough to a polling place with their signs and semi-automatic weapons, there might indeed be serious intimidation. (We have already seen heavily armed Trump crowds gathering near one particular polling place on the first day of early voting in Virginia.) Trump hopes that even without the KKK regalia, some voters will be intimidated.
Luckily, people who know that the future of our country depends on beating Trump --- and beating him handily so there will be no opportunity for him to contest the results in Court --- have an answer to voter suppression. They started demonstrating it the very first day of early voting by getting in line!
On Monday, October 12, over 170,000 voted in Georgia, some waiting in line for many hours.
I recorded this commentary on Monday, October 26. That evening it was announced that 62 million people had already voted. The commentary is being broadcast on Friday, October 30. That morning the reports were that more than 80 million people had already voted. This is out of a total expected vote of 150 million (and that’s probably too low an estimate!)
This is the best answer to those who would suppress the vote. Yes, there are long lines in many locations and that definitely creates inconveniences. However, many of these early voters are black --- lining up in direct defiance of voter suppression efforts. Many of these black people remember when you literally risked your life to attempt to vote in the Jim Crow South before the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Seeing the pictures of voters waiting on line in Atlanta, Milwaukee, Harris County Texas (where Houston is) and many other places brought to mind the courage of front line workers in March, April and May when the pandemic hit our country like a ton of bricks.
On April 3, I delivered a commentary about front line workers --- Here is some of what I wrote: .
“I want to celebrate the people who keep the food supply arriving in our grocery stores, the medications arriving at the neighborhood pharmacy or into our mailbox, the electricity and heating fuels arriving at our homes, and those who deliver the information we need to keep connected and keep safe.
Let’s start with the agricultural workers. Before the food got to the grocery store it was a plant or an animal --- and an agricultural worker is the reason it grew to maturity. Before the electricity came to our houses, it was generated because a worker brought fuel out of the ground – or constructed a wind turbine or a solar array. Before the medications arrived at our pharmacy, the pills were assembled mostly by workers overseas (about 70% roughly). For every reported story in a newspaper or delivered by electronic media, there is a reporter out getting the story. There are technicians and printers who report to work to create the information flow.
Once these are finished products they go to wholesalers, distributors and, finally, to the grocer, utility or pharmacy. How did they get there? Both food and drugs were sorted and prepared for shipment by warehouse workers. The newspapers were sorted and packed for home delivery or bulk drop off. Unlike workers who might (I stress “might”!) be able to practice some form of personal distancing, like agricultural workers, people working to extract fossil fuels, to erect turbines or install solar panels, or to mix chemical ingredients in labs, warehouse workers are thrown together in enclosed spaces (enclosed spaces increase the intensity of possible infections). Even delivery of television programming often requires camera operators in close proximity to their subjects.
The warehouse workers, in particular, without whose work we would not eat or medicate ourselves cannot practice separation – cannot work from home…. these workers deserve the equivalence of hazardous duty pay!
Once the products are ready for shipment, it’s (mostly) truck drivers who move the food to the grocery store, the oil or natural gas to the generating plant, the pills to the pharmacy, and the newspapers to the stores, newsstands and home delivery personnel. [Some products still move by rail of course.] Though one might think the long haul truck drivers are pretty safe, because they work alone and can sleep in the cab, they still have to get fuel, food and take bathroom breaks at a large number of truck stops all over the country --- where they will almost certainly find themselves much less than six feet away from fellow customers at their various stops.
Finally, grocery store workers stock the shelves, pharmacy workers put the pills in bottles, local oil and gas companies deliver the fuel to our homes and apartment buildings. In addition, the check-out clerks in groceries take great risks, coming close to every person who buys provisions inside the store. Media people who do not have the luxury of working from home are in the various stations interacting with co-workers --- though some are definitely able to practice social distancing.
And through all of this, workers in the Postal Service, UPS and FEDEX deliver packages and mail directly to our door --- keeping us connected --- while public transit workers bring essential workers to and from work, often exposing themselves.”
As we watch voters lining up for early voting defying the Republican voter suppression and voter intimidation tactics---- we must sing out in praise of those front line VOTERS --- waiting in line to vote – in some cases for many many hours --- .
Though most of these voters appear to be wearing masks, it is still difficult to engage in social distancing --- they will be breathing the air of those waiting in line with them for hours on end. This is of course especially true when they enter the polling places. Everyone who does not vote by mail is literally risking their lives for our country’s democracy.
When Donald Trump loses the election, it will be because of the courage of those who stood in line to vote. The rest of us who voted in “safe” precincts or by mail will be forever grateful for that courage and commitment.
Michael Meeropol is professor emeritus of Economics at Western New England University. He is the author with Howard and Paul Sherman of the recently published second edition of Principles of Macroeconomics: Activist vs. Austerity Policies
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