A Rage For Order Summary

In A Rage for Order: Black-White Relations in the American South Since Emancipation, Joel Williamson discusses the ironic idea that freeing African Americans from slavery also freed racism. The segregation and radical ideology that stemmed from the end of the Reconstruction era started a string of violence that spread through the nation.

Williamson describes the three mentalities that made up white public opinion at the time. Liberals thought that, under the watchful eye of white leadership, it was possible for African Americans to tap into their potential and rise in station. Conservatives felt that blacks were an inferior race and stressed the idea of ensuring they knew their place in society. Radicals, however, predicted that African Americans would eventually devolve into savages and insisted they had no

Throughout the history of slavery, and through part of the Reconstruction period, Williamson claims that the white elite had a connection with the black masses that kept the two cultures integrated. White culture and race relations in the South had to undergo extreme changes to allow the formation of segregation. Segregation stems from poor whites struggling to hold onto the position they no longer had over blacks when blacks were legally declared citizens.

The Radical idea of blacks devolving into a destructive state quickly spread. Williamson claims that because of the economic downturn that followed the Civil War, whites were lashing out at perceived threats. There was a rash of sexual assault claims against black men, and the violence was, in part, retaliation and a form of protection for the alleged assault victims. Whites were not able to financially support their families, which damaged the pride they held as the provider for the household, so they compensated by protecting their women from black men in order to repair their damaged