After the Civil War, the new, unified government tried to make things better in the South. They tried to give black people the right to vote, and civil rights, and all that good stuff. And for the most part, they did. Then they made one crucial mistake. They left. They picked up their military, and left the blacks and the whites in a tense racial relationship that was about to blow shy high.
With the lack of military occupation, things went downhill pretty fast. The whites were left in control, and they were pretty bitter about the recent turn of events. They took it upon themselves to make the lives of the black people around them Hell, by establishing a series of laws now call the Jim Crow laws. They made it pretty much impossible for black people to get a halfway decent education. Then they made all sorts of laws (coughvotingcough) that were pretty much based of how much education people recieved. This effectively crippled the black's newfound freedom.
Beyond the Jim Crow laws, new orginizations (coughKKKcough) sprung up, who took it upon themselves to "punish" those who'd took it upon themselves to make their lives better. They burnt crosses, beat people up, and hanged people for wanting nothing more than an education. It turned into something like homegrown terrorism for quite a while. People were so scared about retaliation from these groups that they decided for the time being, ignorance was okay. So segregation began.
Currently, there's something kinda similar going on overseas. In China, the government is very uptight about how much knowledge the public has. They have firewalls placed all over the Internet, keeping their people behind closed doors and in the dark. People could probably write proxy codes for a living over there. (They might already, who knows?)
They also don't like the spread of ideas very much. They put people like followers of Falun Gong, and others in "Re-education camps" (coughtorturecampscough). They also banished the Dalai Lama from Tibet, his native homeland for anti-Chinese sentiments. This is the same kind of thing they did post-reconstruction. A little different, but the same basic shtick.
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6 comments:
Wow.your blog was awesome. I think you were absolutely right about the north leaving the south. however they would have to leave at some point.imagine if they left only 10 years ago. do you think 2008 would be like the 1960?
Wow Ellen, may your brilliance shine bright. Your right the north shouldn't have left the south to clean up their racial spat. For being so educated that was a pretty dumb move. They should have known that the south would have been sawdy(salty). The lives of the blacks seemed a little worse then salvery. Maybe someone should have told the north that if you break, you should stay until it's completey fixed.
Your blog was prety good. It was not fair how the black people really only had themselves. Its also not fair with the whole China thing how their government is treating them somewhat inferior.
ELlen, I really enjoyed reading your blog. Just keep watch of your spelling :) Other than that, nice info. Very smart in connecting China and their own laws about knowledge to post-Civil War days. Your explanation of the Jim Crow laws were well-explained also.
You seemed gung-ho about doing the Jim Crow laws. Nice job. The whole North leaving the South, bad idea. The South totally did not treat blacks equally, which is a shame. And I totally love the hack "cough*insert racial group here* cough" thing. lol Creative.
I very disagree with how the Chinese government works. It kind of frustrates me how uptight they are. Just how the south was with what their ideas were with black people. I disagree very much with that also.
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