The Other Side of the Enmancipation Proclamation Essay

Current modernists attempted progress from the terrible prejudice toward African Americans, however traditionalists prevented the new movement of equality for blacks. Many people are influenced by previous experiences and expect situations to continue on endlessly without change, similarly F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, â€Å" So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past†( Fitzgerald). In deeper meaning this quote means that as humans we are constantly trying to relive what has already happened, and if we try a little harder or run a little faster events might have had a different outcome. I believe this a major point of differentiation between modernists and traditionalists in the south. Throughout history wealth†¦show more content†¦Southern americans showed extreme contempt for African Americans even after the end of the civil war. They believed that blacks were uncivilized and unworthy of american citizenship and voting rights. This d istain for blacks became a learned behavior and continued into the 20th century. Beginning as early as 1865 a group of called the Ku Klux Klan sought out african americans and killed and tortured them in horrible ways. By 1870, the Ku Klux Klan had branches in nearly every southern state, the groups main object being an underground campaign of violence against Republican leaders and voters in an effort to change the laws of Radical Reconstruction and restore white supremacy in the South.(J.M. Bryant Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction Era.) The KKK’s tactics of political terrorism were effective and set fear in the hearts of many. Black churches and schools were burned, citizens attacked, and people who refused proper submission were beaten and killed. This was a terrible time in American history and truly shows southern whites contempt for emancipation of their slaves, and the extremes circumstances whites would go to express that animosity. Another example of the hostility and hatred of the southern whites was lynching. Lynching is defined