Columnist Charles M. Blow of the New York Times was certainly right when he wrote on Wednesday that Reconstruction was “allowed to fail” when the Civil War ended and the last federal troops withdrew from the South.
Blow observes that “even though there was a large percentage of Black voters in many of these states — and Black voters were the majority in some — the terrorists were able to significantly reduce that voter participation through intimidation and violence.” This meant it would take seven more decades before Congress would fully restore voting rights for many black men in the South.
Indeed.
It is a stretch and an insult, however, to further claim as Blow does that President Donald Trump, who was born in New York and never lived in the South until he established his castle in Florida many years later, either was or is any kind of a racist. Call him a boor if you want. Yes, prior to the Jan. 6 riot, Trump seemed to veer toward incitement of violence. Still, Trump’s wrath was directed at those who wanted to keep him from power. His anger had nothing to do with skin color.
At a lunch that Trump once held at the White House for nonwhite young conservatives, he said he hoped he would live to see the first nonwhite Republican president. If Sen. Tim Scott wants to run in the 2024 election, perhaps Trump will see that day sooner than later. It’s also worth observing that Trump appointed Nikki Haley as only America’s second nonwhite female ambassador to the United Nations (Susan Rice being the other).
Bring on the conservative nonwhites and women, and let the chips and/or ballots fall where they may. But don’t pretend Trump’s record is one that crowed for the South of old.
