Thread by @DenbrotS

Understanding McConnell /1

It took Kentucky 111 years to abolish slavery … and we still haven’t dealt with the statues

forwardky.com/took-kentucky-…

Understanding McConnell /2

Gov Bevin—
“it is a very dangerous precedent to pretend that your history is not your history..It doesn’t mean you agree w/it or even like it. But to pretend it does not exist..&the ability to learn from (it) is a very dangerous proposition.”

Understanding McConnell /3
..Confederate statues..are certainly symbols: they are symbols of an insurrection to overthrow our gov’t, led by men who were traitors &they are symbols of 200-plus years of hate, racism,murder,segregation,disenfranchisement &discriminatory laws..

Understanding McConnell /4

..it was not until 1976 that the Kentucky legislature ratified the 13th Amendment. That’s right: Kentucky did not officially agree to outlaw slavery until 111 years after the 13th Amendment prohibiting involuntary servitude became the law of the land.

Understanding McConnell /5

In 1830,30 yrs before the Civil War began,slaves made up around 24% of the population in KY.Approximately 28% of white families owned 5 or fewer slaves. In 1860, KY had 225,000 slaves living..between Louisville &Lexington working on hemp &tobacco farms

Understanding McConnell /6
.. Brutus Clay,U.S. rep &anti-abolitionist..made an impassioned speech against the Emancipation Proclamation stating,”If you take away from a man that which he considers to be justly his own, you make him desperate, and he will retaliate against you..”

Understanding McConnell /7

..ironically, he was talking about “a man’s” right to own slaves. It didn’t occur to him that this is exactly how slaves felt toward their own country for enslaving them, and the very reason for the Civil War.

Understanding McConnell /8

..the Kentucky legislature voted to reject it (13th Amendment) by a 56-18 vote in the State House and a 23-10 vote in the State Senate.

Understanding McConnell /9

Afterward, the 1st wave of the KKK rose to power along w/state militias &paramilitary groups..formed to vandalize &destroy property &to intimidate, physically attack &assassinate black citizens. Lynchings were the preferred way to kill black men &women

Understanding McConnell /10

During Reconstruction and up until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, black citizens were also disenfranchised and not allowed to vote through a series of laws that required them to pass literacy tests, pay poll taxes, or own property.

Understanding McConnell /11

There was also the “grandfather clause”..prevented you from voting if your grandfather hadn’t voted, meaning black citizens couldn’t vote but illiterate whites could..by the early 1900’s, black citizens were virtually eliminated from voting..

Understanding McConnell /12

As a result,by 1900,less than 1% of black citizens in the Deep South were registered to vote..in NC,even though there were 630,207 black citizens in the state,not one of them (zero)could vote in that year’s elections—same thing in LA SC GA AK AL MS TN

Understanding McConnell /13

From 1900’s to 60’s,thousands of cheaply made Confed statues were erected all over the country,most financed by the DAR, &placed on public lands..put up..during the Jim Crow era, when violence against black Americans was at an all-time high.

Understanding McConnell /14

So while black Americans were legally not slaves,they were held captive to oppressive laws that led to they’re being hanged,beaten &treated as 2nd-class citizens.The statues were meant to instruct them that they were still inferior to the white man.

Understanding McConnell /15

There is no honor in the repression of other human beings in any form &it should never be recognized or celebrated.
The men who fought against their own country to enslave their fellow citizens shouldn’t be held up as heroes in the public square..

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