Ongoing white supremacy in action

By A. Peter Bailey
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist

Anyone who is shocked or surprised by what the states of Texas and Mississippi are currently doing to suppress Black voting must have little, if any, knowledge of the history of the two former Confederate States in America. Otherwise, they would know that on February 2, 1861, Texas adopted “A Deceleration of the Causes which impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union.”

The white Supremacist declaration included the following; “We hold as undenial truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as inferior exclusively by the white race for themselves and their prosperity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment. That in this free government all white men are and of right are to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind and the revealed will of the All mighty Creator. As recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races as advocated by our sectional enemies will bring inventible calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states.”

A similar, even more direct, declaration from Mississippi stated that “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery – the greatest material interest of the world. It’s labor surprise the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging of the tropical regions and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization….” The only surprise in the declarations is the capitalizing of the word “African”.

Georgia, South Carolina, and other confederate states adopted equally white supremacist declarations. The 2021 white supremacists, who are passing laws to suppress black voters, are ideological descendants of those who wrote those declarations. Their goal is to maintain white supremacy by any means necessary.

This article originally published in the June 14, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.