Thread by @RogerMissoCNY

What does the Presidential Election of 1876 have to do with #BlackLivesMatter protests - and what does it mean for this moment in American history?

Buckle up: it’s a #thread about corruption, Rutherford B. Hayes, and why this country remains unequal. (1/16)

The period after the Civil War ended in 1865 was known as Reconstruction. This was when former Confederate states were brought back into the Union and rights were expanded for blacks in America - under the watchful eye of US troops stationed in the Southern States. (2/16)

Reconstruction was messy and imperfect, but won our country the 13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments, as well as forceful protection of blacks in the South from massacres at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan - born during this period by racists butthurt over suffrage for blacks. (3/16)

Important here to note that, since this time, our politics has inverted. Who we now call Democrats were best described as Republicans in the late 1800s, and who we now call Republicans were best described as Democrats. (This basic history still eludes @charliekirk11) (4/16)

As you can imagine, things started declining as Reconstruction went on. Republicans in the North whined about having to look after Southerners, conveniently forgetting that without their armed watch, blacks in the South would lose their rights and be killed. (5/16)

This all came to a head in the Election of 1876.

The “compromise candidate,” Republican Ohio Governor Rutherford Hayes, went up against Democratic NY Governor Samuel Tilden.

Famously, Hayes was soundly defeated...

...in the *popular* vote. (6/16)

Back then, the number of electoral votes needed to win was 185.

After Election Day, Tilden was sitting at 184, with 20 EVs from 3 states still outstanding...

...all former Confederate states. (7/16)

Commence one of the most corrupt scenes in American history. For months, a bicameral “Electoral Commission” met to decide the outcome of the presidential election.

Why was this Commission needed? For everybody’s favorite legislative tactic, of course: the filibuster! (7/16)

Southeners threatened to filibuster the vote to confirm the election results.

So what did this mean for blacks in America at this moment?

The same thing it always has.

White Congressmen made a deal - one that resulted in the end of black rights. (8/16)

In exchange for Hayes as President, Southern states demanded - among other things - the removal of Union troops from the South.

So to get their boy elected, Republicans approved the “Compromise of 1877” - a truly corrupt bargain that ended Reconstruction & began Jim Crow. (9/16)

I cannot even fathom the continued tragedy that has happened since.

The ultimate of betrayals led to lynchings, involuntary servitude, and the de-facto destruction of so many of the rights blacks had just won.

The price we paid for Rutherford B. Hayes was too damn high. (10/16)

Fast forward to today. Americans are taking to the streets to protest the murder of black men and women at the hands of police.

(And when were so many of these police forces conceived? In the post-Reconstruction period, to round up and brutally subjugate blacks.) (11/16)

Today, some ask in exasperation why it always has to be this way. Are #BlackLivesMatter protests futile?

I am here to say - despite what you’ve read in this thread - that they are not.

And we know this because we know our history. (12/16)

For 12 years, Reconstruction changed our Constitution and extended rights and protections to our black brothers and sisters.

A corrupt compromise may have gone down 143 years ago. But Reconstruction didn’t end.

It was just put on pause. (13/16)

We must call for a New Reconstruction.

The deaths of #GeorgeFloyd, #BreonnaTaylor, & #AhmaudArbery have laid bare our failures - the corrupt bargains of our politics.

We cannot continue to betray our black neighbors. It’s time we truly had their backs. (14/16)

A New Reconstruction must reaffirm and expand the rights of black Americans. It must indemnify the inequities of the past through direct compensation & legislation. And it must require a real, EQUITABLE political voice for blacks at all levels of government. (15/16)

It’s time to redeem ourselves for Rutherford B. Hayes & our betrayal in 1876. It’s time to turn #BlackLivesMatter into real, historic change. It’s time for a New Reconstruction with specific, tangible rights for black men and women in America. (16/16)