From the 1870s until the 1960s - and that's not counting the obscured Jim Crow laws that were passed after that to achieve the same goals with less overt racism.
Politics: General Removal of Statues Thread
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What I was saying was the Mississippi legislature of 1870 consisted almost entirely of Republicans (~31 freedmen and free-born African-Americans, a bunch of carpetbaggers, and some scalawags).
What those men set about doing was (1) ratifying the XIV and XV Amendments, and (2) electing the first black man to serve in the United States Senate (Hiram Revels, selected to complete the unfinished term of Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis, no less).
Maybe you were just trying to be humorous, but that legislature did not write Jim Crow laws.
If you are interested in the evolution of disfranchisement of black southerners, I suggest Perman's, Road to Redemption.
If you are looking for Jim Crow laws, specifically, I read Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow while an undergraduate at Alabama.
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I don't think Mississippi ratified the 13th Amendment because they just did not want to. I suspect it has been a point of pride for many in the state. Mississippi is and has been a backward state full of bigots my entire life.
I do not know the history of Mississippi. These are my impressions from knowing numerous people from different parts of the state.
I do not know the history of Mississippi. These are my impressions from knowing numerous people from different parts of the state.
What’s the saying? Thank God for Mississippi or else Alabama would be last in most important things.
Are you seriously claiming that from 1870 to 1965 the Mississippi legislature did not write any Jim Crow laws? Because that would be more asinine than your moving and completely meaningless goal posts.
No, I'm just saying the a bunch of former slaves and former Union soldiers did not think it was worth the effort.
Maybe you are just more virtuous than they were.
I got lost once in Mississippi. I thought I had hit a time warp and gone back in time to 1985. There was a girl with 80's hair and a guy with a rat tail and a members only jacket. It was 1998.
Maybe they were afraid of what all the Dixie carrying folks in Louisiana were doing to black people. Louisiana was probably the more progressive politically towards former slaves and had to deal with all these racist former confederates going crazy against the prospect of living with their former slaves.
But you still have to ask “ Why did it take until 1995 for a real conversation of ratification happen” and why were there so many Jim Crowe laws put in place that flew through their legislature.
Mississippi is better on the coast or the northern part of the state. Otherwise you see the same Mississippi Delta that all of the blues players lived through. It’s really a poor state.
My brother lives in Gulfport. It isn't as nice as some of the other coastal towns, but it is like another planet compared to the rest of MS.
My aunt lives in Ocean Springs. It’s pretty nice. The Mississippi coast isn’t like Alabama and Florida coast in which it’s all tourist centric, but it’s nicer than 80% of the State.
I went back and read the Journal of the Mississippi House of Representatives for the period January 1870.
The overwhelming majority of the Representatives were either (a) former Union soldiers who had moved into the state after the war or (b) freedmen. These were, of course, all Republicans. There were some indigenous whites (mostly Democrats), but generally ones who had taken no part in the war or the civil government during the war, because anyone who had done either would be automatically ineligible for public office in 1870 (unless that disability had been removed by Congress).
The military governor Adelbert Ames (originally of Maine) directed the legislature to consider the proposed amendments to the federal constitution, to select senators for the vacant seats in the US senate.
After organizing the house (selecting a speaker, clerks, doorkeeper, etc.), they ratified the XIV and XV Amendments, filled the senate seats, and adjourned until the Congress had re-admitted the state.
Nobody even brought up the XIII Amendment. It does not appear in the journal. Nineteenth century Americans did not feel the need to indulge in gestures that had no effect. The XIII Amendment was duly ratified. It would not be more ratified if Mississippi had reversed its earlier disapproval, and that disapproval had not prevented the adoption of the amendment by the Union overall.
The Mississippi legislature that convened in January of 1870 was the legislature most likely to have reconsidered the state's disapproval of the XIII Amendment, but they just went about their business (and they did have a state to run). If we could ask them why they did not retroactively adopt the XIII Amendment, they would probably look at us strangely and ask, "You know that amendment was ratified four years ago, right?"
The overwhelming majority of the Representatives were either (a) former Union soldiers who had moved into the state after the war or (b) freedmen. These were, of course, all Republicans. There were some indigenous whites (mostly Democrats), but generally ones who had taken no part in the war or the civil government during the war, because anyone who had done either would be automatically ineligible for public office in 1870 (unless that disability had been removed by Congress).
The military governor Adelbert Ames (originally of Maine) directed the legislature to consider the proposed amendments to the federal constitution, to select senators for the vacant seats in the US senate.
After organizing the house (selecting a speaker, clerks, doorkeeper, etc.), they ratified the XIV and XV Amendments, filled the senate seats, and adjourned until the Congress had re-admitted the state.
Nobody even brought up the XIII Amendment. It does not appear in the journal. Nineteenth century Americans did not feel the need to indulge in gestures that had no effect. The XIII Amendment was duly ratified. It would not be more ratified if Mississippi had reversed its earlier disapproval, and that disapproval had not prevented the adoption of the amendment by the Union overall.
The Mississippi legislature that convened in January of 1870 was the legislature most likely to have reconsidered the state's disapproval of the XIII Amendment, but they just went about their business (and they did have a state to run). If we could ask them why they did not retroactively adopt the XIII Amendment, they would probably look at us strangely and ask, "You know that amendment was ratified four years ago, right?"
Descendants of Emma Sansom call for removal of statue in Gadsden
There are calls for the Emma Sansom monument in Gadsden to be relocated. Descendants of Sansom support the decision. They say it serves as a painful reminder for African Americans. "We believe that the appropriate action is to remove the statue and to not have it be in public view," Preston...
abc3340.com
Last time I saw that statue, someone had broken Emma Sansom's finger off, so she was holding a fist out. It looked odd.Descendants of Emma Sansom call for removal of statue in Gadsden
There are calls for the Emma Sansom monument in Gadsden to be relocated. Descendants of Sansom support the decision. They say it serves as a painful reminder for African Americans. "We believe that the appropriate action is to remove the statue and to not have it be in public view," Preston...
I spent a couple years helping a friend of mine out with his and his wife's biker merchandise business.
They had a very successful pest control business and did this on the side.
Set up a tent during bike week two times a year in Daytona (Bike Week and Biketoberfest) and then a couple others - including one in Gulfport. They did the set up and take down and I helped with sales.
They flew me to Gulfport and back for that one. I enjoyed doing these - the variety of personalities you get to see was very entertaining and interesting. This includes of course all the babes who "insisted" in taking their shirts off to try on various garments.
I had a digital camera and took a lot of photos! We sold all kinds of stuff. Had a little stereo in the tent and also some Jack and Coke when the mood struck - which was usually when it started getting late...lol.
I don't really know that much about the place other than that. Hadn't thought about it until I saw your post.
I'll try and dig out some of the pics. I think they're on a CD somewhere.
It's amazing how much money that little business made - just selling out of a tent!
Sadly last year their whole season was washed out by the algae - couldn't go in the water and the beaches were closed.
There are demands that the Emancipation statue in Washingon, DC be removed.
Ex-slaves raised the money for that statue, and demanded that the slave figure of the monument be wearing shackled which the slave himself has broken, showing black agency in the process.
Frederick Douglass himself spoke at the dedication of that monument.
He said, (in part):
"That we are here in peace to-day is a compliment and a credit to American civilization, and a prophecy of still greater national enlightenment and progress in the future. I refer to the past not in malice, for this is no day for malice; but simply to place more distinctly in front the gratifying and glorious change which has come both to our white fellow-citizens and ourselves, and to congratulate all upon the contrast between now and then; the new dispensation of freedom with its thousand blessings to both races, and the old dispensation of slavery with its ten thousand evils to both races—white and black. In view, then, of the past, the present, and the future, with the long and dark history of our bondage behind us, and with liberty, progress, and enlightenment before us, I again congratulate you upon this auspicious day and hour."
Douglass closed his comments this way:
"Fellow-citizens, I end, as I began, with congratulations. We have done a good work for our race to-day. In doing honor to the memory of our friend and liberator, we have been doing highest honors to ourselves and those who come after us; we have been fastening ourselves to a name and fame imperishable and immortal; we have also been defending ourselves from a blighting scandal. When now it shall be said that the colored man is soulless, that he has no appreciation of benefits or benefactors; when the foul reproach of ingratitude is hurled at us, and it is attempted to scourge us beyond the range of human brotherhood, we may calmly point to the monument we have this day erected to the memory of Abraham Lincoln."
The DC delegate to Congress introduces legislation to remove the emancipation monument.
I imagine if we could revive Frederick Douglass and explain the situation to him his would reaction would be:
Ex-slaves raised the money for that statue, and demanded that the slave figure of the monument be wearing shackled which the slave himself has broken, showing black agency in the process.
Frederick Douglass himself spoke at the dedication of that monument.
He said, (in part):
"That we are here in peace to-day is a compliment and a credit to American civilization, and a prophecy of still greater national enlightenment and progress in the future. I refer to the past not in malice, for this is no day for malice; but simply to place more distinctly in front the gratifying and glorious change which has come both to our white fellow-citizens and ourselves, and to congratulate all upon the contrast between now and then; the new dispensation of freedom with its thousand blessings to both races, and the old dispensation of slavery with its ten thousand evils to both races—white and black. In view, then, of the past, the present, and the future, with the long and dark history of our bondage behind us, and with liberty, progress, and enlightenment before us, I again congratulate you upon this auspicious day and hour."
Douglass closed his comments this way:
"Fellow-citizens, I end, as I began, with congratulations. We have done a good work for our race to-day. In doing honor to the memory of our friend and liberator, we have been doing highest honors to ourselves and those who come after us; we have been fastening ourselves to a name and fame imperishable and immortal; we have also been defending ourselves from a blighting scandal. When now it shall be said that the colored man is soulless, that he has no appreciation of benefits or benefactors; when the foul reproach of ingratitude is hurled at us, and it is attempted to scourge us beyond the range of human brotherhood, we may calmly point to the monument we have this day erected to the memory of Abraham Lincoln."
The DC delegate to Congress introduces legislation to remove the emancipation monument.
I imagine if we could revive Frederick Douglass and explain the situation to him his would reaction would be:
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At this point, any statue that might offend anyone - especially the ignorant - is fair game.
from the article.
i guess she is referring to this. his reaction upon being revived would probably be a little more complex and nuanced.
digging around, i found an article from 2012 that goes into some of the reasons folks would like to have the emancipation statue removed.
On Emancipation Day in D.C., two memorials tell very different stories
On Emancipation Day in D.C., two memorials tell very different stories
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