Inherently Unequal – Lawrence Goldstone

Most Americans don’t know of a time period just after the civil war where Blacks were actually treated as equal citizens. Lawyers, doctors, congressmen, affluent respectable people. Jackie Robinson is technically the first African-American in the big leagues SINCE Reconstruction. Many teams were segregated before the Jim Crow laws came into effect. Protected by force, Blacks were allowed to flourish and within 10 years of slavery achieved remarkable success in this country. After the civil war, the south was defeated but similar to our war strategies of today, southern ideals were left smoldering and not extinguished and within a few years they were again full-fledged fires burning racism into America. Revoted into governorship and Congress, southern whites with their disdain for Blacks were now able to legally create separate but equal laws that survived until the mid 1900’s and some can argue continuing until this day. Lincoln’s murder began the descent as he had a democratic vice president, imagine President Obama’s VP being John McCain and you’ll understand. This death returned the country to being controlled by southern ideals. Although not immediately, the force that had enforced our new country’s post civil war ideals slowly but intentionally began to wither away. With Supreme Court appointments, control of Congress, a separation of federal and local laws were enacted that created mayhem for Blacks that still exist.

This book chronicles the time period circumferencing Reconstruction and the various politics that legalized racism. An amazing read that initially I thought would be technical but was full of facts and concise. I always wondered why did america risk its own death to equalize its citizens then just as quickly allow bigotry to run wild? The answers were given.

Just reading the first (5) pages will saddened you to think about the abuse of power many elected and appointed officials have even still this day and how their personal agendas are adhered to.

Inherently Unequal
Lawrence Goldstone