This Week in Reconstruction, April 8-14, 1871

This Week in Reconstruction, April 8-14, 1871

Race relations filled the pages of the Dispatch during the past two weeks. The Ku Klux has been gaining prominence nationwide and bills have been presented in Congress to increase protection of victims and accountability by the police. The Dispatch says that this call for protection is led by Radicals and the Dispatch do not seem interested in making the situation better from victims, nor do they view the Ku Klux as bad or threatening. Evident racism is evident, for when a Northern newspaper equated Fredrick Douglas to white men, the Dispatch reporters were outrage and threatened by this claim, even threatening retaliation if, "Congress [was] to pass any law to put whites and negroes upon an equality at public dinner tables-no party should become responsible for such a law would survive a single election." This evident racism and fear of Black ascension in class society. It also indicates the measures that white society will go to remain above Black Virginians. Since Reconstruction has ended at this point, racism and systematic suppression are the lasting impacts of the era.

April 8-14, 1871

Megan Wiora

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