Thread by @TrevonDLogan

What an absolutely horrible take from @herandrews. Neglecting that historians, economists, sociologists, and other scholars have independently confirmed the central tenants of DuBois’ “Black Reconstruction” for the last 50 years is what white supremacist sympathizers do…

https://twitter.com/herandrews/status/1469703996466245638

For example, when @herandrews writes “It is noteworthy that this line started being touted only after the last people with firsthand memories of Reconstruction had died.” She is purposely overlooking the autobiographies of Black leaders during Reconstruction, such as Lynch (1913)

And while she spends all her time on corruption, she fails to (1) note the political basis for those claims, many of which were contemporaneously proven false, nor (2) make any argument that corruption before of after Reconstruction were any different — because she cannot.

Another omission is that she must, by nature of her argument, support two key Redemption ideas. First, that Black people should not be enfranchised. Second, that racial political violence is acceptable. Those are part of a package deal, but she won’t tell you that.

How does @herandrews deal with the fraud of former enslavers trying to treat the newly freedmen out of their wages, who tried to restrict their movement to better opportunities, who denied them constituent services? She just ignores them and Reconstruction’s attempts to help.

There’s no mention of the massacres, the race riots, the rampant voter intimidation, the Congressional investigations, the *need* for Federal troop presence, the murder of Black elected officials. None of that history makes it in to this hit piece. But it’s important.

Why were race riots and massacres disproportionately held the week before an election? Why no discussion of US v. Cruikshank (1876), which ended attempts to federally protect Black voters? No discussion of the Civil Rights Cases of 1883, nor the laws they overturned.

You can only get this type of work from people committed to a narrative that has long been discredited. She cannot attack Eric Foner or Steven Hahn, for example, whose work on Reconstruction has vindicated DuBois, whatever weaknesses existed due to lack of archival work.

The fact that we still see work like this is a testament to the power that white supremacy has in American society. While people like @herandrews think they’re staking a novel claim, they’re just proving DuBois right again.