It’s a common trend for ideologues of every stripe to look into the past and bend it to fit their theories or current political needs. Never one to buck trends, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes decided to conclude Wednesday evening’s episode of All In with a misleading comparison between the rioters on January 6 and white supremacist militias attacking state capitols and killing vast swathes of innocent black Americans during the Reconstruction era.
Hayes began by highlighting the element of January 6 which, in his mind, paralleled the violence in the Reconstruction-era South, describing it as “a violent right-wing mob refusing to accept defeat at the ballot box by a multi-racial coalition and storming the seat of government to take it over by force.”
Hayes then jumped right into his history lesson:
Immediately after the war ended, of course, southern states were under federal occupation. Formerly enslaved people were freed and given the right to vote. And these places in the south began to see a new form of multi-racial coalition politics: black, white, fusion elected governments throughout the south, from the municipal level all the way on up. And those governments were opposed by the dead and reactionary white racist old guard.
Hayes then recounted the Battle of Liberty Place in 1874, where a white supremacist militia called The White League attacked the Louisiana state house, killing numerous police officers and deposing Republican officials; Hayes described them as “the Proud Boys of their time.”
He added, “And it happened just a year after the notorious Colfax Massacre — which was also in Louisiana — where the same group, The White League, captured a federal courthouse defended by an all-black militia and murdered dozens of African Americans.”
The third example was Hayes’ most dramatic, “You know, they actually succeeded in 1898 in Wilmington, North Carolina. This one is — uh, less famous, less well-known. But the mob took to the streets shooting and killing an untold number of black citizens. . .and they put unelected white men into place in the city government instead.”
Hayes wrapped up by putting these three terrible events in his preferred political context:
And remember, those tactics, the armed violence and the coups, the attempt to overturn elected government like in Wilmington, in Wilming — it worked over time. It worked. And the free black people in the south, many of those jurisdictions, didn’t see their freedom, their true democratic rights again for another 80 years. Those are the stakes. That’s what happens if the mob is allowed to rule without repercussions.
Hayes is correct when describing the deplorable events that happened in New Orleans, Colfax, and Wilmington, but what makes his argument so ridiculous is the equivocation — never said out loud but always heavily implied — of white supremacists with today’s GOP.
In Hayes’s view of history, January 6 was the doing of today’s “reactionary white racist old guard” who couldn’t stand losing to the Democratic Party’s “multi-racial coalition.” For Hayes, the crowd on January 6, a portion of which later stormed the Capitol even though told by Trump to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” and an even smaller portion of which were armed, are the modern successors to white supremacist paramilitaries with enough organization and firepower to kill federal troops and successfully occupy government buildings.
January 6 was not a day for Trump and his supporters to be proud of, but to tar everyone who was there as racist terrorists trying to return America to the Jim Crow era is ridiculous, scurrilous, and further deepens the same feelings of alienation and anger that led to the storming of the Capitol in the first place.
Do better, Chris.
This faulty historical analogy was made possible by Aleve and Abbvie. Their contact information is linked.
Click “Expand” to see the relevant transcript.
MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes
06/29/22
8:55:05 PM ETCHRIS HAYES: We tend to think about January 6 as unprecedented because in many ways it was. We’d never seen the Capitol ransacked by insurrectionists. We’d never had a coup at the federal level. Which is why watching it in real time felt so surreal — like, is this actually happening?
But as we learn more about what it was, essentially a violent right-wing mob refusing to accept defeat at the ballot box by a multi-racial coalition and storming the seat of government to take it over by force, it’s clear this is actually a pre-existing script in American political life. It’s not one we’re taught in school, but this blueprint has existed in this very way, particularly in the south in the years after the Civil War.
Immediately after the war ended, of course, southern states were under federal occupation. Formerly enslaved people were freed and given the right to vote. And these places in the south began to see a new form of multi-racial coalition politics: black, white, fusion elected governments throughout the south, from the municipal level all the way on up. And those governments were opposed by the dead and reactionary white racist old guard.
And what happened in those years, again, and again and again, is the multi racial party — at that time the Republican Party — with white and black voters, they were in power, and the Democrats of the era would say elections were stolen. That there was fraud. After an election they would assemble armed mobs to march on local government in order to wrest the power back into their control.
And it was fully understood at the time that’s what happened. And one newspaper, 1874, read, quote, “the condition of the south is by no means reassuring,” this of course from a Republican paper, “there is an evident determination shown in several of the states to intimidate black voters and by the process of intimidation to secure a monopoly of political power of the whites.
Now that story around two days after one of the most infamous examples. It was called the Battle of Liberty Place, it happened in New Orleans in 1874. Again, this is prime Reconstruction, right? The south is still under federal occupation. The details, they’re going to sound familiar. So there was an election, there were accusations of voter fraud by the reactionary white party, who then turned to calls for street action.
Here is one such call. It was reprinted in the local paper. It called on people to amass in the streets saying quote, “you have been the silent but indignant sufferers of outrage after outrage heaped upon you by a usurping government.”
Well, a white supremacist militia movement responded to that call, gathering to overturn the state government and put the losing candidate in office. And the New Orleans metropolitan police were put on a war footing because quote, “it was believed that the White League clubs meant business and no mistake. It was known that these clubs were pretty well armed, and determined to make a stand.” These were the Proud Boys of their time.
And the police of New Orleans were right to be worried because, lo and behold, later that day, quote, “the various companies of the White League armed with every variety of weapon [emphasis Hayes’s] appeared in the streets taking positions in various portions of the city. And they attacked the police, multiple police officers were killed.
By the following day, the old officials from the Republican Party, right? The Democrat — the, um, multi-racial party, they had been deposed, and the state house seized by the white supremacist party. And the pro coup papers celebrated the victory with language, that again, it’s going to sound very familiar. Noting the quote, “dozen gallant lives sacrificed on the altar of liberty; the blood of gentleman and patriots,” that had been shed in that, quote, “Louisiana throughout its borders today is free.”
Eventually it took federal troops to restore order as so often happened, but it was a huge deal at the time. I mean, chronicles and newspapers from Louisiana to New York.
And it happened just a year after the notorious Colfax Massacre — which was also in Louisiana — where the same group, The White League, captured a federal courthouse defended by an all-black militia and murdered dozens of African Americans.
And atrocities like that one kept happening, armed white supremacists, mobs, trying to overtow — throw democratically elected local governments all the way through the latter half of the 19th century.
You know, they actually succeeded in 1898 in Wilmington, North Carolina. This one is — uh, less famous, less well-known. But the mob took to the streets shooting and killing an untold number of black citizens. But what their aim was was they physically occupied the local government, they took over the local government, and they expelled the black politicians, and they put unelected white men into place in the city government instead.
And you go back to those moments in American history — Liberty Place, Colfax, and Wilmington — and it really helps to clarify what we saw on January 6. The seditious tradition in American life. And the very real warning signs of what was actually happening, seen and documented by people at the time.
And remember, those tactics, the armed violence and the coups, the attempt to overturn elected government like in Wilmington, in Wilming — it worked overtime. It worked. And the free black people in the south, many of those jurisdictions, didn’t see their freedom, their true democratic rights again for another 80 years.
Those are the stakes. That’s what happens if the mob is allowed to rule without repercussions.