I've always thought that George Wallace's "I got out-n—d," on why he lost the 1958 governor's race, was essential to understanding white supremacy in the Jim Crow era—race hatred as an electoral tactic, race hatred as a verb.
The guy Wallace was referring to died this Friday.
The guy Wallace was referring to died this Friday.
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1401600827211538437
The past, as the man said, is not past.
Which is, I guess, a pretty good pretext for sharing something I've had on my desktop ever since I stumbled across is a couple of months ago—a front-page New York Times headline from 1967. 
The headline reads "Rusk's Daughter, 18, Is Wed to Negro," and it refers to the wedding of the only daughter of the sitting Secretary of State, Dean Rusk. Again, the story ran on the front page of the New York Times. Above the fold.
The second graf of the story says that Rusk offered his resignation to LBJ when he told him that his daughter was going to be marrying a Black man, and that LBJ declined it.
This was, again, in 1967. Just fifty-four years ago.
This was, again, in 1967. Just fifty-four years ago.
Sgt. Pepper was at the top of the charts, Bonnie and Clyde was at the top of the box office, and the US Secretary of State was offering to resign because he was concerned his daughter's marriage to a Black guy might embarrass the president.
And of course it was only that summer that the Supreme Court had announced its decision in Loving v. Virginia, legalizing interracial marriage in the sixteen states in which it was still illegal.
The wedding, by the way, didn't just make the front page of the New York Times. It made the cover of Time magazine, too.
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