The Right Stuff: Political master of deception: Part 2

By Earl Heal Published February 13, 2023

Earl Heal: The Right Stuff Previous columns identified continuous overt Democratic Party support for maintaining slavery until Civil War defeat. After Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender April 9, 1865, other Confederate forces surrendered April 9, 21 and 26 April; May 4, 5, 10, 11, 12 and 26; and June 23. All Confederate states met surrender criteria for rejoining the Union by July 1868, including revising their respective state constitutions.

Reconstruction (1865-1877), the turbulent era after the Civil War, was the effort to reintegrate Southern states of the Confederacy and 4 million newly freed people into the United States.

During late afternoon of May 1, 1866, long broiling tensions between the residents of southern Memphis, Tennessee, erupted into a three-day riot known as the Memphis Riot of 1866 after a white police officer attempted to arrest a Black ex-soldier. The victims initially were only Black soldiers, but the violence quickly spread to other Blacks living just south of Memphis who were attacked while their homes, schools and churches were destroyed. White Northerners who worked as missionaries and school teachers in Black schools were also targeted.[...Read More}