Confessions of A Son of the South: Part I

As a native white southerner born, raised, and educated in the segregated south, I want to tell you some things about southern racism that few southerners will tell you. The facts are historical, cultural, and psychological.
The history arises from the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War. Under the Reconstruction, most southern politicians and military officers who had been an official part of the Confederacy were not allowed to hold any public office for a number of years, while Blacks had been the right to vote and run for office. As a result, many Blacks were elected to local government and to state legislatures. Southern whites, as a rule, found this galling and intolerable. (Remember that under slavery, it was against the law to educate any Black slaves.) These ignorant, smelly, and stupid Blacks had no right to govern them, and had to be put back in their place.

Southern white reaction after Reconstruction was swift and harsh. The Ku Klux Klan was born to put Blacks back in their place. Blacks were forbidden to vote or hold office, and all sorts of "legal" devices were created to keep these restrictions in place. Public schools were segregated, and ALL southern states adopted a system of elected school superintendents to make sure that Blacks received a separate and unequal education. As Blacks had come out of slavery owning no property, they were mostly forced to work for white farmers and businessmen under the most menial of circumstances, and in the most menial jobs.
That provides the historical context. In Part II, I will begin to address the cultural and psychological sides.