In Self Defense: The American Cycle Of Black Criminalization

The American Cycle of Black Criminalization

A white man is standing over a dead black child. The cartoon’s caption reads, “Ef I hadn’t-er killed you, you would hev growed up to rule me”. This cartoon, titled “In Self Defense”, condemned Southerner’s brutal acts of racism in an 1876 issue of Harper’s Weekly. This illustration conveys Southerners’ fear that the black population would threaten their safety, political power, and social order. The cartoon also draws parallels to numerous police shootings, in which the officers claimed that they feared for their lives and shot an unarmed black man in self-defense. This fear of armed blacks can be traced back to slave patrols, which prompted Southern men to protect their homes from slave insurrections

After the South’s surrender, many Confederate soldiers manifested their fears of black resistance and empowerment into their participation in vigilante groups. In his text, A Nation Under Our Feet, Steven Hahn notes, “the Klan not only came to embody the anger and displacement of a defeated soldiery… it also may be regarded as a guerilla movement bent on continuing the struggle and avenging the consequences of the official surrender”. White vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan attracted ex-Confederate soldiers because these groups perpetuated the Lost Cause. Since its primary goal was to exert authority over black people to restore military and political hierarchy, the Ku Klux Klan epitomized the South's memory of the Civil War. The Lost Cause portrays Confederate soldiers as Southern gentlemen who were rightfully protecting their homeland and noble way of life. Following this logic, freedmen, who voted overwhelmingly Republican, threatened the 'Southern' way of life and political order that the South fought so vigilantly to protect. A fear of black empowerment persisted during Reconstruction as blacks were often characterized as too ignorant or intellectually inferior to vote. Furthermore, after slavery, blacks continued to be depicted as hazards to white communities, as well as social and political order. The Ku Klux Klan's response to this

The actor, who is painted in black face, resembles a wild animal as he tries to attack a white woman. This film illustrates how the Ku Klux Klan sustained the American custom of policing black people. Similar to how Southern whites embraced the Lost Cause to erase the South's sins during slavery, the many white people adopted a belief that black people were dangerous in order to redefine their role in racism. By characterizing black people as criminals, the Ku Klux Klan distinguished themselves as American heroes who were protecting their communities. The Ku Klux Klan also used this narrative to justify their violent actions against the black community. Vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan continued through Reconstruction into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Although some of these groups have disbanded or become less influential, they reflect violent tradition policing blacks and a belief about black people, especially black men, that persists in society