Slavery By Another Name

In preparation for the workshop, we were sent two books.  The one I just finished is Slavery by Another Name, by Douglas A. Blackmon. Blackmon, the Atlanta Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, has explored how the slaves freed by the Civil War were systematically re-enslaved in the 40 years after the war.  The main engine for this was the iron industry, which was going to be crucial to the rebuilding of the South.  But, you may be asking, I thought slavery was ended by Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (actually that only freed slaves in states still in rebellion in 1865--the very states where Lincoln had no authority at the time), or certainly by the 13th Amendment and end of the war. I won't get into all the Constitutional issues connected to this, but you should know that southern states were permitted by the Supreme Court to pass new laws which made all kinds of behaviors for the freed slaves illegal.  For instance, an African American could be arrested for vagrancy--not having a job.  What happened after the arrest is the story Blackmon uncovered.  Local sheriffs would turn the "convict" over to the Justice of the Peace who would immediately find the person guilty and assess a fine of $5 or $10, or whatever.  In any case, the convicted person could not afford the fine.  In come the owners of local coal mines, iron factories, etc.  They pay the fine and now "own" the convict.  In essence, because of made up laws whose only purpose was to keep the freed slaves from participating as free and equal men and women, thousands were sold back into slavery.  And, to make it even worse, when the federal government tried to stop the practice, it ultimately failed. Federal judges gave up, and then the Supreme Court, in a series of rulings, permitted the practice to continue.  As for conditions in the new slave camps--I'll leave that to you to discover when you read the book. But, in a word, they were horrific. This practice lasted until World War II. Consider that when you think about the timeline of racial discrimination against African Americans.
Ok--if you've stuck with this so far, then read on a bit more.  When the Supreme Court last week invalidated a key provision of the historic 1965 Voting Rights Act on the grounds that times have changed, and the data was out of date, I could only think about how the Supreme Court essentially "undid" the emancipation that bloodiest war in American history had purchased.  It took about 40 years for that to happen.  Well---do the math--it has been 50 years since the Voting Rights Act, and 60 years since the desegregation of schools.
 Oh, and what about the Court's decision about the University of Texas affirmative action policy--check it out, and post your thoughts.
Is history repeating itself?I certainly hope not--but it does give one pause.
I'll offer more thoughts on this after I meet the author--Blackmon is presenting to our group next week Monday.  Stay tuned.