1/ A conservative friend of mine argued at various times and in different contexts (including racial preferences or affirmative action), that slavery ended in 1865, he had nothing to do with it, so why don't African-Americans "just get over it." #RaceMatters 
2/ Yes, slavery ended in 1865 and while it contributed greatly to the wealth of white America, African-Americans were given nothing in return as the government reneged on its promise of 40 acres and a mule after the end of the Civil War. #RaceMatters pbs.org/wnet/african-a…
3/ Compare this to the Homestead Act of 1866 which transferred an area of land in the west the size of CA and TX (10% of all US land) to whites who need only improve it for 5 years and file a deed. aeon.co/ideas/land-and… #RaceMatters
4/ The end of slavery, unfortunately, did not mean freedom in its true sense. Slavery was replaced by #JimCrow laws that denied AAs "everything from property ownership to free movement to business ownership." #RaceMatters nationalgeographic.com/history/refere…
5/ This was upheld by the US Supreme Court in Plessy v Ferguson (1896) under the doctrine of "separate but equal". history.com/topics/black-h… #RaceMatters
6/ When African-Americans began to exercise political and/or economic power they were violently crushed. In 1898, white mobs overthrew a multi-racial city council in #Wilmington, NC, and destroyed black businesses without consequence. #RaceMatters todaypast.wordpress.com/2015/11/10/nov…
7/ When African-Americans returned from fighting for democracy abroad in WWI, whites feared they might want some at home and this resulted in the #RedSummer of 1919 with white mob attacks across the U.S. theworldwar.org/learn/wwi/red-…
8/ One of the worst attacks was the #ElaineMassacre in Arkansas where #LeroyJohnston, a decorated member of the #HarlemHellfighters, who had just returned from recuperating from his wounds was killed by a mob. #RaceMatters ualr.edu/news/2018/09/1…
9/ These attacks continued into the 1920s in places such as Tulsa, OK (1921) where the nation's "Black Wall Street" was burned to the ground . . . #TulsaMassacre #RaceMatters .todaypast.wordpress.com/2015/06/01/tul…
11/ Then there was the terror of lynchings. According to data from the University of Kentucky, there were 50 or more African-Americans lynched every year from 1883-1922 (except 1917) and the lynchings were made into postcards. #RaceMatters #Lynching #StrangeFruit
12/ While Jim Crow led to the Great Migrations of African-Americans from the rural south to the urban north, they were met with #SundownLaws forbidding their presence after sundown in cities across the nation including even Berkeley, CA. #RaceMatters zinnedproject.org/materials/sund…
13/ This is in addition to economic segregation, as the federal government and banks redlined black communities blocking loans to those communities, while the federal housing policies fueled white-flight to the suburbs. #RaceMatters washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2…
14/ Yes, progress was made in 40s, 50s and 60s with civil rights advancements that helped reshape America and that is why we honor Martin Luther King, Jr. because he forced America to live up to its slogan of "liberty and justice for all." #RaceMatters
15/ It was fitting that the nation's first African-American President was sworn-in on MLK Day. But there were some who believed that Obama's election meant the slate was now clean on race. #RaceMatters #BarackObama #McConnell courier-journal.com/story/news/pol…
16/ Yet today, the median income for a white household with no college degree is greater than that for a black household with an advanced degree. #RaceMatters washingtonpost.com/business/2020/…
17/ Yet today, an African-American child born today is almost 7-times more likely to go to jail than a white child. bjs.gov/content/pub/pd… #RaceMatters
18/ Yet today, African-Americans are over 4-times more likely than whites to be shot by the police. #RaceMatters #BlackLivesMatter washingtonpost.com/investigations…
19/ Yet today, thanks to the shameful #ShelbyCounty decision invalidating a key portion of the #VotingRightsAct, Republicans are actively trying to suppress the black vote and getting away with it. #RaceMatters #BlackVotesMatter vox.com/policy-and-pol…
20/ Yet today, we still have 705,749 people subject to taxation without representation in Congress due in part to the fact that it is majority non-white. #RaceMatters #DCVote #DCStatehood huffpost.com/entry/ten-reas…
21/ The silver-lining in the #GeorgeFloyd tragedy is that now we are having this discussion and maybe a recognition that a day of reckoning on race as people are talking about #Juneteeth and the #TulsaMassacre. #RaceMatters
22/ To answer my friend, there can be no "getting over it" until we acknowledge that the 13th amendment did not mean "freedom" which is still being fought for today. We much teach our history and remedy this legacy of injustice. #RaceMatters
23/ And we can only do that if we reject the voices of division and intolerance. #RaceMatters #RacistInChief
24/ There is no simple solution. Speaking the day after MLK was shot, RFK spoke of racial division, "we cannot vanish it with a program, nor with a resolution. But we can perhaps remember that those who live with us are our brothers". #RaceMatters
