The Economic System
One of the most memorable one-liners by any president was uttered by Bill Clinton in his 1992 presidential campaign against candidate George Bush: “it’s the economy, stupid.” This seems like a simple concept, an idea that is both straightforward and rooted in common sense economic policy. A person’s ability to provide financially has a psychological impact on how they see themselves and their contribution to society. The chance to plant the seed of prosperity in America was once the sales pitch to people in other lands. It brought the Europeans to Ellis Island and Asians to Angel Island. Yet when former slaves tried to plant their seed, they found the soil void of nutrients and the sunlight blocked, thus stunting their financial growth and spoiling the chance for the fruits that come with residual income and generational wealth.
Before his death, President Lincoln, along with Frederick Douglass, had begun planning for the transition of former slaves to a post-war America. The first pieces of legislation that were created to provide freedoms for people of color were the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Each of these provided a certain level of rights to citizenship for former slaves in America. The Election of 1866 allowed for radical Republicans to take charge of Congress. These individuals would push the executive branch to use the army to oversee efforts to rebuild a south that provided African Americans with political, professional, and educational opportunities. Many Blacks fought to gain control over their working conditions. With the help of radical Republicans, they fought for U.S. Senate Bill 60, which “would have made the Freedmen’s Bureau a permanent national agency and also enable freed blacks to own their own land.” (17) More importantly, this bill would have created a federal agency to serve African Americans throughout the South for the foreseeable future. Blacks would be able to purchase land at lower prices and begin to build wealth that they could pass on to future generations. Unfortunately, like the initial promise of forty-acres and a mule of 1865, this did not come to pass. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill and the Senate was unable to overturn his veto, coming up short by only two votes. The system of oppression had struck again, planting the seed of economic stagnation for a people who were soon to be facing the dark days of Jim Crow.
What does this mean? For starters, it means that African Americans would have trouble creating wealth for their families because they didn’t have access to the necessary tools such as financial institutions, loans, legal representation and protection from intimidation brought forth by the Klu-Klux-Klan and other White Supremist groups. Moreover, it was the start of several moves by the U.S. government to exclude African Americans from future programs including the New Deal Rules, Social Security Act, Critical Labor Provisions and the G.I. Bill. (18) These purposeful acts continued to allow one group to cut the line of prosperity and force others to watch as they “eat.” Is this not the nation that spent billions on a Marshall Plan, a plan to rebuild an entire continent? It seems the open hand that was bestowed upon Europeans was and has remained a closed fist to people of color in the United States for centuries.
Social welfare programs aligned with Reconstruction that supported former slaves were eliminated. The structure of the southern systems began to gain traction, and by 1900 there was a resurgence of Southern Democrats. Richard Valley notes that a House report from the 53rd Congress of 1893-1895 demanded, “every trace of reconstruction measures be wiped from the book. By 1911 this goal was effectively met.” (19) Yet in spite of all these barriers, African American communities still made every effort to find their own American Dream. Two examples of this are Tulsa and Rosewood.
Tulsa, Oklahoma serves as an example of African American entrepreneurship that was destroyed by resentment and the idea that not all lives are created equal. Greenwood was the sector of Tulsa where African Americans set up their homes, a result of the oil boom in 1902 that brought people from around the country to Tulsa. This area boasted its own movie theater, banks, restaurants, clubs, and various other commercial businesses, including over 11,000 black Tulsa residents. (20) It was the epicenter of economic prosperity for people of color in the south. Many of the African American men living there were veterans of the First World War and carried themselves with a level of pride foreign to whites and many blacks at that time. (21) Their unapologetic pride and financial success often led to resentment from neighboring white communities.
On May 31, 1921, an African American man named Dick Rowlands was accused of groping a white woman, Sara Page, in an elevator. When white residents heard the news, they called for the execution by lynching of the young man. A scuffle broke out and shots were fired. White residents soon overwhelmed the African American defenders and burned the city of Greenwood to the ground, killing over thirty people and leaving over nine thousand homeless. When blacks tried to rebuild, their insurance claims were denied. While this lack of humanity is disappointing, what is more appalling is the government’s decision to refrain from pursuing legal action. (22)
A similar example is Rosewood, a small town located in Florida. Although racially integrated and less developed, it had an area of town that was primarily populated by African Americans and could have served as a springboard as an economic hub for people of color. Unfortunately, on January 1, 1923, Fannie Taylor, a white woman engaging in an extramarital affair, was physically injured by her lover during a dispute. In order to maintain her secret, she told her husband that a black man attacked her. White people in the community believed that Jesse Hunter, an escaped convict, was to blame and went to Hunter’s home. Although they did not find him, they found and lynched Aaron Carrier who they suspected of aiding in Hunter’s escape. (23)
Like Tulsa, in Rosewood there were African Americans who were willing to defend their homes and families. One of those men, Sylvester Creek, defended his home when his front door was kicked in. He shot and killed two men and wounded four others. Word of whites being killed by blacks quickly spread and soon, two hundred armed white men descended on the town of Rosewood. One white resident of the community attested that “it was open season on niggers around here.” (24) Within a matter of days, all of the homes of black residents living in Rosewood were destroyed by the mob. Most African Americans who lived in Rosewood never returned and lost the land that they owned due to unpaid taxes in the years to come. (25)
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