Anti-racism: Encyclopedia II - Anti-racism - Origins of modern anti-racism

Anti-racism - Origins of modern anti-racism

North American Indian nations had more of a direct influence on anti-racism. Many Indian nations were very egalitarian in comparison to European nation-states. Moreover, though Indians often saw their culture as superior, they did not tend to make racial distinctions in the same way as Europeans did. Both whites and blacks could -- and did -- join Indian nations as equals.

Some whites preferred living as Indians, while black slaves could become free by escaping to Indian territory. Several Indian nations -- most notably the Seminole -- were mixed race, with both Native Americans and blacks as members. The U.S. war against the Seminoles was motivated in part by a desire to close an escape route for Southern slaves.

Besides the practical threat, however, Native American societies presented an ideological danger to racism. Many scholars believe that these societies helped to inspire enlightenment doctrines of equality and freedom. Anti-racism is implicit in the statement "all men are created equal". Black westerners, like Olaudah Equiano, and even some whites, like Thomas Jefferson, did point this out, though the blacks were often not in a position to do much about it, while whites, like Jefferson, were often unwilling.

Eventually, however, that changed. The first great successes of anti-racism were won by the abolitionist movement, both in England and the United States. Though many abolitionists did not regard blacks as equal, they did in general believe in freedom and often even equality of treatment for all people. A few, like John Brown, went further. Brown was willing to die on behalf of, as he said, "millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments...." Many black abolitionists, like Frederick Douglass, explicitly argued for the humanity of blacks and for the equality of all people.

During the American Civil War, anti-racism in the North became much stronger and more generally disseminated. The success of black troops in the Union Army had a dramatic impact on Northern sentiment. After the war, Reconstruction government was often explicitly anti-racist, most notably in passing the Fourteenth Amendment and Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution to guarantee the rights of blacks, but also in its general support for black rights and in its commitment to equal treatment. As a result, many ex-slaves had access to education for the first time. Blacks were also allowed to vote, which meant that African-Americans were elected to Congress in numbers not seen before -- or since.

Due to prolonged racist resistance in the South, however, and a general collapse of idealism in the North, Reconstruction ended, and gave way to the nadir of American race relations. The period from about 1890 to 1920 saw the re-establishment of Jim Crow and a general abandonment of anti-racist ideology. Woodrow Wilson, a revisionist historian who regarded Reconstruction as a disaster, resegregated the federal government. The Ku Klux Klan grew to its greatest peak of popularity and strength. D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation" was a movie sensation. During this period, John Brown's anti-racist stand was so incomprehensible that he became regarded as insane.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Origins of modern anti-racism", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki