Legislating Racism: The Billion Dollar Congress and the Birth of Jim Crow

by Thomas Adams Upchurch

The Civil War and Reconstruction were characterized by two lasting legacies―the failure to bring racial harmony to the South and the failure to foster reconciliation between the North and South. The nation was left with a festering race problem, as a white-dominated society and political structure debated the +proper role for blacks. At the national level, both sides harbored bitter feelings toward the other, which often resulted in clashes among congressmen that inflamed, rather than solved, the race problem. No Congress expended more energy debating this issue than the Fifty-First, or "Billion Dollar," Congress of 1889-1891. The Congress debated several controversial solutions, provoking discussion far beyond the halls of government and shaping the course of race relations for twentieth-century America.

Legislating Racism proposes that these congressional debates actually created a climate for the first truly frank national discussion of racial issues in the United States. In an historic moment of unusual honesty and openness, a majority of congressmen, newspaper editors, magazine contributors, and the American public came to admit their racial prejudice against not only blacks, but all minority races. If the majority of white Americans―not just those in the South―harbored racist sentiments, many wondered whether Americans should simply accept racism as the American way. Thomas Adams Upchurch contends that the Fifty-First Congress, in trying to solve the race problem, in fact began the process of making racism socially and politically acceptable for a whole generation, inadvertently giving birth to the Jim Crow era of American history.

Genres: History

320 pages, Hardcover

First published July 30, 2004

Reviews

[Barbara Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an immensely informative book, particularly in terms of explaining the variety of forces that influenced alliances and hypocrisies in terms of trying to shore up the 15th amendment at the end of the 19th century. Detailed and well organized. The only thing that was a problem for me was that the author assumed familiarity with a lot of political jargon from the time period, such as “doughface” and “bloody shirt”. I needed to look terms up elsewhere to understand what he was saying.

[Rosaline · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important and deeply useful text for anyone trying to understand the development of racist attitudes in the United States. It breaks down the tensions and shifts in the national zeitgeist that later set the stage for the civil rights movement.

[Vanessa Holloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for Law/History courses. VH