"We've never been more divided in this country," Really? Part 2

Most of us at some level know that applying the phrase "we've never been more divided" to American public life today is ludicrous in light of our Civil War.  Now that I'm on page 750 of the 1000 page Grant by Ron Chernow (author of Alexander Hamilton, the book that inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda to create the Broadway play), I can also apply that wisdom to "Reconstruction." This of course is the period following the Civil War, when the federal government was figuring out how to protect newly enfranchised black (male) voters and to re-integrate southern states back into the union and life of the country.

Grant acquainted me with the horrific details of the white backlash in the south against former (forced to be illiterate) enslaved men voting, running for and holding public office.  Did you know that during this time the original extremely violent Ku Klux Klan had such a tight hold on certain counties and states throughout the south that a federal investigation estimated over 60% of all white men at all levels belonged to it?  According to this biography, the Klan was truly the first terrorist organization within the United States, horrific lynching, murders, witness intimidation, torture and dismembership was widespread throughout the former confederate states.

In response to the orchestrated widespread terror, President Grant pushed through Congress the first broad expansion of federal policing and judicial powers: the Ku Klux Klan Act (which you could call the Patriot Act Part 1, something I hate to say because I detest the Patriot Act).  This act allowed the federal government to use the newly created Justice Department to suspend the rights of habeas corpus throughout the south, arrest and hold witnesses and suspects without charge for months and try them in federal court before (sometimes) interracial juries, in order to break the Klan. 

The amazing thing is that this multi-year crusade worked.  The "Ku Klux" as it was colloquially known in the 19th century, was almost completely eradicated by a few years into Grant's presidency (somewhere around 1871).  The KKK as we knew it/know it was re-born anew in the 20th century in 1915 and then, according to Wikipedia died around 1944 (presumably due to World War II) and was reborn in 1946 as a backlash to the mid-century civil rights movement.  So there was a 45 year period when there was no Klan --which, of course, is not to say that there was an eradication of racism.

I find all this (re)acquainting myself with the American history of racism, division and violence useful not to minimize anything that is happening today, but to a) put it in perspective and b) remind ourselves that the history of the United States of America is inextricably linked to our history of slavery and the preservation of white power.  Every time that white power has been threatened in this country*, large swaths of white America have organized to squash the effort with rage and violence.  We can all only hope and pray that this round will end soon with far less violence and for good.  

*As it is today by immigration and reproduction trends-- estimates say that by 2045 the U.S. will make up less than 50% of the population-- in some states, California, for example, the census estimates that there are more "non-white hispanics" than any other ethnic group