George Washington Gordon Quotes
If the blacks make war upon us they must abide by the awful retribution that will follow
George Washington Gordon, 1836–1911, U. S. Congressman, Confederate Brigadier General, Early Organizer and Member of the Ku Klux Klan, Quoted in Charles Ramsdell Lingley, The United States Since The Civil War
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Wilson, a history and government professor and college president before politics, was has been accused of being one of the most racist Presidents since Reconstruction. Prior to his Presidency, the Federal Government had been making steady progress in hiring African Americans. Under Wilson there was a wholesale firing of a large proportion of them. Some apologists argue that his League of Nations and other major aspirations required the votes and cooperation of Southern Senators who insisted that many of the blacks be terminated. At the same time, the KKK was near the zenith of its membership and political power and was an intimidating force. Wilson’s home state of New Jersey not only had a large KKK membership but there were lynching of Blacks in his own state and when Governor and President he never asked for any anti-lynching legislation.
Forrest went on to be the first National Leader of the Terrorist Organzation.
Johnson was the first Black man who won the heavyweight championship at a time when racism in America was rampant. Many whites referred to Jeffries as “The Great White Hope” who would take the champion back for the whites. He didn’t and was beaten badly.
Buying furniture and equipment for Negro schools was perceived by the White Population as “squandering public funds”. Web returned with the Militia but no one would testify against the Klan. Huggins left the area and went to the North. The Klan did not kill him, but they accomplished their objective of intimidating all the local people Black and White so that Negro schools would not be furnished and getting rid of the only White who tried to improve Negro schools. The methods of terrorists have not changed much since then.
For years through the Jim Crow years, Whites murdered many Blacks with impunity if they were perceived to be uppity or to try and obtain their Constitutionally Protected rights. Most took place in the South. The Negroes were typically tortured, mutilated, burned and hung from trees where they would be left for days as the major purpose was to strike terror in the Southern Black population. The Southern State and local governments never opposed the policy via oratory, legislation of law enforcement. The Federal Government did not interfere either. And much of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover actually enabled the White Citizen’s Councils and the Klu Klux Klan. The NAACP began an anti-lynching campaign and Ms. Holiday was a one-woman public exposure campaign centered around this song. The anthem itself was written by a New York City schoolteacher named Abel Meeropol, using the pen name, Lewis Allan. It reached millions of Americans and Holiday fans the world over. To view some of the historical scenes described in the song, see http://withoutsanctuary.org/main.html
At the time, racial discrimination was so rampant in America that when one of the units of Pepsi Cola, under the leadership of Walter Mack, hired Emmons to sell to Black communities, the Black residents of Northern communities were so unused to seeing Blacks in a “white collar” job, that they were treated as celebrities. Emmons and a few other black salesmen had incredible results yet despite that, the practice did not grow at the time as there were too many white executives who were so prejudiced that the practice was not increased after Mack retired. This short quotation paints a good picture of the nature of racial job discrimination in the North prior to WWII.
The racial inequality did cause a Black revolution in the 1960s. The arrival and influence of Martin Luther King, at the time Black revolution might have turned violent, and the willingness of a substantial number of whites to implement the Civil Rights revolution functioned as a safety valve so that there was substantial reform towards much more racial equality.
This quotation illustrates how the racist South defeated the objectives of the Civil War and Reconstruction by the institution of Jim Crowe laws and so called “states’ rights”. It would take more than another half century for the Yankees and the vast majority of the non-Southern Americans decided that the Southerners could no longer “do as they pleased” with fellow human beings. It is hard to believe for us today that an entire section of our country could actually believe in the morality of the South but that is the tragic history of race relations in America.
Professor Egerton documents how successful Reconstruction was in radically changing the positions of Blacks in the South. He points out that it was so effective that a hate-filled, racist group of Southern White terrorists, with murder, arson, torture and intimidation took over many of the governments of the South while President Andrew Johnson, who although he believed in the Union, was himself an inveterate racist and opponent of emancipation, would not use the force of the Federal Government to bring the terrorists to justice. (The KKK leaders were known in every state and county). They successfully overthrew Reconstruction and set the process back by 100 years.
Bilbo was one of the worst racists who ever served in the Congress.
George Washington Gordon was a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he practiced law in Pulaski, Tennessee, where the Ku Klux Klan was formed. He became one of the Klan's first members. In 1867, Gordon became the Klan's first Grand Dragon for the Realm of Tennessee, and wrote its "Precept," a book describing its organization, purpose, and principles. He was also a member of the United States House of Representatives for the 10th congressional district of Tennessee.
