Echoes of Reconstruction: Scientific Racism & “Proof” that Black Children Don’t Belong in Schools With White Children
Emerging Civil War is pleased to welcome back Patrick Young, author of The Reconstruction Era blog.
From the conservative Democratic newspaper the Yorkville Enquirer of South Carolina comes the opinion of science in favor of racial segregation and white superiority. This South Carolina newspaper quotes a letter from Elliot Coues, an army surgeon from New Hampshire who was stationed in South Carolina in 1868. Coues would go on to be a leading ornithologist. His scientific background was hyped by the paper because of the credibility that it lent to his racist views. While pre-war racism relied heavily on religion, after the Civil War there was an increasing turn towards scientific racism to justify discrimination.
Yorkville Enquirer
Thursday, Nov 26, 1868
York, SC
Vol: 14
Page: 3
[Article Below]
Reading this makes me sick but I must remind myself that this is from the reconstruction era. Unfortunately this is some of the same slop that was dished out in the 1950s and 1960s when white southern folks were fighting school integration. Thank you Supreme Court of the United States for the term “all deliberate speed”.