American Experience; Reconstruction: The Second Civil War; Interview with Clarence E. Walker, Historian, University of California, Davis, part 3 of 3

let's go down to ground level among white settlers set of trying to decide is that violence is rising as the clan of white leader whoever it is just ignore active what is happening how are people deciding what they're going to do one of awesomeness out would be a mistake to assume was directed at black people in was directed at white southern republicans was directed at black people was directly even had people who were not us is a political that this was a war and her team get out of the president laugh voters and black holes were also of weinstein to be race traitors in the south east so see asian with the republican party became a mark a social pariah owners disagree that people were terrified

because you ever written this acts of violence against the southern white republicans people being shot and lynched and people having their homes burn center i love that the violence here is not directed at song black people in that sense i think we have to understand that the south was not monolithic in some ways about the process of reconstruction government libyan citizens in this with me now to rise and the federal government relax restraints what about not only white republicans is just ordinary white people who might not even have been political might not have necessarily supported the

violence you know did they get some have pressured co opted into why didn't i in terms of why society was running and resolutely called solid south and that even if you were not political even if you were not officially affiliated with the republican party they do what had been pressured and some way or the other to be silence or to turn your head the other way that it is the case that it is a sector of his populace that is expressing his point of view and expressing in the most violent and physical way to reestablish white supremacy and nothing will be tolerated on the bailout stands way that it will be tolerated in this instance we talked earlier about trace that i would like to race in the notion of race trump's class that it looked at the beginning

as if there might be a possible alliance is between non planter whites and the new black political class but what we see here at the un as things were looking back over this period was what conclusion can you draw about this history west also are about this question what raised trump's cause but i think that in this conference race did trump was there for the most part the white south did not exist for white formation we've got really two years and the reason for that it seems that quite simply is that they had grown up a culture in which any association with blackness was deemed to be socially on its own people in southern society there to be associated with what people really associate with him politically was enough to erase tree or in iraq and then this is a very powerful psychological threat

that could be mobilized against people who made any effort to ally themselves with black people can get staff to make sure we go do you want to issue bonds reliable black and white people in the end only postpone periods to use that word i think people are just this week it may be tougher now like it's hard to imagine you know people didn't predict something what religion was essential factor lives of people in the nineteenth century and at the time as the war it provides an interview framework for understanding this process is important information provides a way for people to

situate themselves in this titanic struggle between the north and the south which on some levels is interpreted as children who would evolve we just interviewed a working out of god's providential hand in history at this particular moment day for black people is a moment of great optimism and confirmation what they had come to understand their religious expression as their moment of deliverance for the whites in the south it also provides a space for them to believe that what they are doing is right that they are defending an institution that has a biblical citation that slavery that they had been performing in their relationships to black people roll a biblical stewards bring up people out of the

darkness into light and therefore i think would be a mistake to see their defense of slavery is truly one of the cans and hypocrisy that this is a deeply felt religious sensibilities and then a hair's issue or even of the political ramifications of those not in some ways seem to be overwrought a series that what the south was doing was correct that the north was violating in some ways not only the constitution but also a biblical duty in going to war to freeze let's talk about the church also that there's a place in a year

right after the war you can take us into a black church maybe white church what's what's going on these displays which is a civil rights laws of the center of the nation both you know great i'm going to go inside a white shirt first i think as they struggle to explain to themselves why this happens that which are typically well in the wake of civil war soldiers as it was trying to religion to explain in many ways what happened today and as the nation was primarily want a violation that they had been seated and care asked into the role of traders when they intersect thought that they were defending the constitution and a religious exemption that institution that what the north had

done to that was to really undermine their place in the world by freeing slaves and by busying them in battle it marked illustrates what this album are just on this now the sense that it is said were even though this country's ms rollins position was just a thought and religion provides them in ways that generation for that one and it's at the juncture after the war he becomes a logical place to sit down it's a sensibility he is in charge of a black or white supplies have a great

deal of the transference of information between various sectors of the community that the ministers serve a function not all bleak ministering to them as liz actors with that also so anyways the slave south they announced a surge in the polls the war periods of those were causes of being preached billion examine the fact that civil religion was also being taught insurgents the jesuit the idea that black people we're white version of the years they in a black church you learned what it is to vote for a candidate to support you also were dj in a broader sense of the world were

to the world over the us is that in the democratic party and has it always been a priority in some ways of white religious institution that he had the postal workers they come to see this as some of reach a statement on the part of black religion this new religion and also liane a function of the religious exercise that's put him in the theater in that picture at the beginning right you were preaching this is this guy's at the beginning quite hopeful turner was extremely hopeful about the civil war and about the future of his people and so he thought that this was a moment of great transformation and had a providential theory of history which explained the whole war in terms of all slavery being a sailor in the war now was

an act all its funding that's in from the american body politic and based on his religious sensibilities he became active well at the level of state politics but also very active in the work of this church as a minister who used his religious abilities to politicize the people not only in his congregation in his district that he was a superintendent for in the african methodist episcopal church and from there throughout the state of georgia in the eighteen states that then was he was he's seeing that was he saying that's given the impression no no it was his writing in the young before was to record was you describe it

charles caldwell because he's not like people striving to take command of their lives he saw them especially homesteads he saw them working he saw family life being reconstituted he also saw children being educated when he saw it was a black movie although marked by slavery number one that seemed to be added millions of the resources to assume a certain responsibility for the general quality of his life and he saw it as a variety of context in the state of georgia as in is there any day as a chaplain in the union on i think it has to be kept in mind that once the civil war was over there was a center of the blackout was it understood that he had to do for itself because no one else was going to do for an amateur and his brother missionaries

the day in georgia and south carolina north carolina where saw this process in motion support ok these producers of the particulars the world class people because they are educated have access to the kind of information that these days is that i don't i don't think you can ever underestimate the power of the preacher politicians are using a language which linguists call their linguistic that is a language rich metaphor and somali and drawing on tales of the bible and contemporary events they were able to convey to the freedom and the urgency of the present moment they were able to

move these people through variety lugo action and also the reaction that eleven america and signs of debris is real and little is the key element to be looking at the internet era you just cannot do and eventually got forgot that in a language that was michael palin was that that is a language rich in settling a metaphor that these black critter politicians were able to convey a message of deliverance a message that says the farm were a message for the destruction of strong black communities to their parishioners and that

william blatt christianity islam at this particular moment assume the primary importance that is never to be underestimated because it is in these sermons that many of these three women who could not read and were not familiar with the broader world learned of the events transpire and outside of their communities outside of their county's but outside of those states that these medicines were able through the power of the religious it's our duties to create a political statements in the polls civil war south that would result in the election of black republicans to office in a number of states of the former confederacy it can

have some level of the eighties symbolize the hopefulness that this legislation would do away with a lot of the indignities that black people have a lot to this desolate they can ms ba in the midst of this debate oh i see the passage of this bill which would have resulted in the treatment of black people and public facilities but that this was not but the bill passed and it has a very short fashion did baz is the reason because i really

want it and it was past primarily as a memorial throughout the charles sumner was he had done that is is you know he is hey michele you know sixty eight the new rates were uncovered you know i want to think that i can say is that it was the fact that they didn't see themselves in polls in themselves and what people owe and was equitable treatment and which i think is at the heart of all this is that it is the whitest presumption that would likely won't do is to run in a general interest was impose themselves on and that's not a visible name is yeah thank you just a realist

well most of the reconstruction process within days about this was built eighteen seventy five which was passed as a tribute to the late charles sumner senator from massachusetts in this debate the black congressman john ryan mentioned mississippi made the point that he was not interested as wide sphere in imposing himself upon white people in a social situation with the black politicians have been arguing throughout the course of reconstruction was that they want equality that has the right to go into places a public service to ride on the trains to be seated in restaurants etc and treated as other americans they'd not only this because they want to be necessarily around white people when they saw this as part of the freedom that is intent on being a

citizen of the united states is the fact that they're white saudis as the opening wedge into the air of nineteenth century society which they call social equality and there was a belief that if you will and all these facilities are these places to black people it would lead to racial situation and this is the great anxiety and fear that haunts on some levels all the discussions about civil rights during the reconstruction period let's do with that that they are no if you opened the door to this kind of social equality would lead to racial intermingling of resisted that the door for racial mixing if you pass the civil rights bill that opened the door to social equality for what's

in the country that law china's fear is now if you're in south carolina were also this was a national mania of great anxiety that this sort of legislation with the opening wedge in a campaign that would ultimately result in racial intermixed you know it's not only just a question of this being a problem of racial mixture one at seventy five is also a feeling in the congress and among the whites of the country at large but this is to be the capstone of the reconstruction process that song what's been granted works and so much has been done for them that no more need be done with the passage of this law loans fortunately this was not to be the case

and these elite status fb