#otd in 1872, 150 years ago, the Ku Klux Committee submitted its 13-volume report to Congress.

Its history held a number of lessons for the Jan. 6 committee, as I wrote about last year for @madebyhistory.

One lesson that remains relevant in 2023...

washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/0… @madebyhistory The power of some members to disrupt and distract from the proceedings.

During Reconstruction, white supremacist Democrats defended the insurrectionists and terrorists of the KKK.

They used the Klan committee hearings and report to do just that.

https://twitter.com/Stephen_A_West/status/1495057920790302721?s=20

An eruption of violence. A congressional investigation. Then what?

Thanks to @madebyhistory for the chance to write about Congress's investigation of the Reconstruction-era Klan and the Jan. 6 committee.

washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/0… @madebyhistory The photo of 2 R & 2 D members of the @January6thCmte underscores an essential point of comparison to the Klan Committee 150 years ago:

Both committees were bi-partisan. But only the KKK Committee had a minority determined to disrupt, hijack, and delegitimize the proceedings.

#otd 150 years ago, the Ku Klux Committee submitted its report to Congress.

It remains an invaluable source for those who #TeachReconstruction – and an object lesson in the power of historical denialism.

Its official name, btw, was a little less pithy: Under a Republican majority, it spent 8 months interviewing 100s of witnesses and compiling a report of 13 volumes and 8,000 pages.

The evidence was overwhelming—of Klansmen whipping and murdering black and white Republicans, raping freedwomen, and burning schools and churches.

#otd in 1871, Pres. US Grant suspended the writ of habeas corpus in 9 South Carolina counties to break up the Ku Klux Klan.

The Klan's "unlawful combinations and conspiracies," Grant declared, amounted to "rebellion against...the United States."

presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proc… Suspending the writ - an act authorized by the April 1871 Ku Klux Act - would allow the mass arrest and detention of Klansmen.

5 days earlier, Grant had ordered terrorists to turn in their weapons and disguises and "retire peaceably to their homes."

https://twitter.com/Stephen_A_West/status/1447896528232845313?s=20

Joe Manchin in his op-ed today said he couldn't vote for a bill that he couldn't explain to the voters back home.

The good news, Joe, is that it isn't that hard.

Let me help, drawing a little inspiration from the history of Civil War & Reconstruction.

wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_… I support pro-democracy measures, Joe Manchin might say—protecting voting rights, #DCStatehood, filibuster reform, &c—because:

1. they're just;

2. they're now made "partisan" by an assault on democracy by the leaders of the other party;

3. that assault hurts my constituents.

Swap the party labels, and this headline/description could have run in 1890-1, when Congress almost passed the Lodge Election Bill.

Designed to protect black voters in the South, it narrowly passed the US House but stalled in the Senate.

theatlantic.com/politics/archi… Some Republicans had other priorities and feared electoral fallout.

Senate Democrats filibustered. Key GOP Senators defected, sealing defeat.

A wave of constitutional disfranchisement followed in the South. American democracy didn't recover for decades.

nytimes.com/2021/03/05/opi…

"It's not a local issue anymore" - and in fact, it never was.

With a Congressional hearing scheduled Monday on #DCStatehood, let's trace the roots of opposition to democracy for DC—roots in the racist, late 19th century backlash against Reconstruction.

washingtonpost.com/politics/dc-st… Elected local government existed in DC before the Civil War, but Black men were denied the vote.

Congress abolished slavery in DC in 1862, and in 1867 banned racial restrictions on voting.

Biracial democracy flourished briefly—tho not without opposition.

Lincoln is getting quoted a lot, but selectively.

Everyone remembers "with malice towards none; with charity for all" from the 2d Inaugural.

Keep reading. Lincoln called as well for a "just, and a lasting peace." Lincoln had a genius for using the language of conciliation even as he refused to compromise.

He had done it 4 years earlier too.

In the 1st Inaugural, he appealed to the "mystic chords of memory" that united Americans—even as refused to compromise on the extension of slavery.

1956 Republican party platform:

"We favor self-government, national suffrage and representation in the Congress of the United States for residents of the District of Columbia." 1960 Republican party platform:

"Republicans will continue to work for Congressional representation and self-government for the District of Columbia and also support the constitutional amendment granting suffrage in national elections."

1. In the Reconstruction South, Democratic leaders publicly denied responsibility for the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan and other groups.

They blamed violence on "poor whites" and said it had no political significance.

Those politicians were lying. 2. Their responsibility for terrorist violence took 2 forms.

One was direct participation. Democratic leaders personally organized and committed violence.

Before he was elected to the US Senate, M. C. Butler took part in the 1876 Hamburg massacre.

https://twitter.com/Stephen_A_West/status/1047685881870606336

1. “I’m a single white man from South Carolina,” an aggrieved Lindsey Graham declared last week.

Note: Graham’s Senate seat has never been occupied by anyone *but* a white man.

Before Graham, it was held for almost 50 years by Strom Thurmond. 2. “The Southern white man does more for the negro than any other man in any part of the country,” Thurmond declared in opposing the 1957 Civil Rights Act.

Running for president 9 years earlier, Thurmond had this to say (from @CrespinoJoe's great biography):