1/9 The first race-based “parental rights” panic occurred between 1872 & 1875. It came about as a result of the debate on how to educate white & black kids in public schools. I know you’re probably shocked. It had to do with a bill titled The Civil Rights Act of 1875.
2/9 The bill had been first proposed by Charles Sumner and on its face wasn’t primarily about public education but rather about preventing racial discrimination in places of public accommodation - trains, hotels, restaurants etc.
3/9 But Sumner also included in the bill a provision outlawing racial discrimination in public schools. That wasn’t surprising. Prior to the War, In 1850 Sumner had sued the city of Boston to end racial discrimination in its public schools.
4/9 The case went to the Massachusets Supreme court where Sumner lost. In an opinion that would later be cited by SCOTUS in Plessy, the Massachusets Supreme Court held that if Black kids felt inferior because of racial separation it was because they chose to feel that way.
5/9 So fast forward to after the war, now Sumner is armed with the 14th amendment and so he inserts a provision in the civil rights bill that you can’t have racial discrimination in public schools. You can imagine the results
6/9 Black officials, legislators, parents support the move, arguing that the way to heal the country’s war wounds is to teach the next generation together so that they learn to think of themselves as one people. (Remember this is 80 years before Brown v Board).
7/9 White parents revolt. Their representatives in congress argue that nothing is more sacred than the rights of parents over their kids and nothing is a greater insult to that right than telling parents their kids have to associate with a race they object to.
8/9 congressional debates over the bill lasted nearly 4 years, and while some objected to other provisions, education & parental rights turned out to be the sticking point. No objection to the bill proved more powerful than the claim that government was usurping parental rights.
9/9 In the end, the bill passed only after sponsors agreed to drop the education provision. And so, segregated life went on as before for nearly another century until in 1954 Brown came about.
PS: those who opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 as an infringement of parental rights explained that they bore no animosity toward Black kids but rather that integration would harm White kids and that it being forced by the feds violated the spirit of post-war reconciliation.
If you come to this thread and find it useful, great. If you come to it wanting to argue about masks and CRT, that’s not what I do in this account. If you come to it wanting to engage, unfortunately I can’t. I’m muting this thread because I’ve been getting too many of these 👇🏿 
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