The Third Reconstruction and the Battle of the Alphabet: KKK, NAACP, MLK, DEI, CRT, BLM

Before we can talk about the Third Reconstruction, we must remember the First and Second Reconstructions.

The First Reconstruction

The 1866 Massacre in Memphis, TN galvanized a Republican party much different from today’s GOP to pass the Reconstruction Acts that ended slavery, defined the formerly enslaved as citizens of the United States, and established provisions to secure their integration into society. The party ratified the 14th amendment, that gives equal protection under the law to all American citizens. This benefited everyone not just African Americans as did the birthright citizenship clause. The reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1898.  

Reconstruction was for those people who believed in a multiracial democracy.  But the other narrative being told, The Lost Cause, the War of Northern Aggression, was a story of redemption or regaining lost possessions.  

The successes of Reconstruction included that thousands of African Americans were elected to political office, Black universities were created that we call HBCU’s today, Black churches rose as a point of strength in the community, and Black business grew. The reconstruction government built public hospitals, funded schools, and rebuilt levees and other infrastructure. The other accomplishments were the legal recognition of African Americans.  They focused on the law that would recognize them as citizens with rights.  They founded organizations and chartered them through states. They started businesses and licensed them in the states. They bought property and registered their deeds. They signed contracts with others including white businesses to deliver or buy this or that product. The point was to establish the civil identity of African Americans. Under slavery, they had no civil identity and no recognition under the law.  So they focused on the law as a marker of human dignity i.e. a fully endowed human being.  They were not concerned about integrating with white people.  Most probably wanted to get as far as from them as possible.   

General William Sherman signed Special Field Order No. 15 issued Jan 16, 1865 that allocated 400,000 acres of confiscated Confederate land to Black families on the coast from South Carolina to Florida. Additionally, some families were to receive mules left over from the war, hence 40 acres and a mule. However, after President Lincoln was murdered and Jackson became president, he reversed the order and what families had built over several years was taken from them at the point of a gun.  “40 Acres and a Lie,” a report from Reveal and Mother Jones has outlined more than 1,200 families who were granted the deeds to land that later was stolen. One doesn’t need to think too hard to imagine the value of that property along the Florida to South Carolina coast today.  The redemption narrative had overtaken the reconstruction narrative.

With Jackson now in the presidency, the confederate states were free to begin imposing slavery again by another name. They deprived Blacks of the right to vote; segregated all facilities; and enacted Black Codes, the convict lease system, and share cropping.  They continued their reign of terror with the KKK that began in 1866.  

Throughout the years, racial progress has always been followed by violent backlash. The redemption vision of white supremacy intended to turn back time to nullify the gains of Reconstruction and use violence to re-enslave the population. Reconstruction ended with another massacre in 1898 in Wilmington, NC that wiped out the entire elected Black government. They installed unelected white supremacists instead. It is considered the only successful coup de e’tat in the U.S. – so far.

The Second Reconstruction

The Great Migration took place from 1916 to 1970 when millions of Blacks fled the south for “The Warmth of Another Sun” (Isabel Wilkerson) that wasn’t always that warm. Ninety years after the Civil War ended the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s began and took the next big step toward a more perfect union.  

The second part of the Great Migration that is not talked about is the migration of six million rural Blacks to southern cities.  It changed the make-up of the rural area as there were no longer workers to do the agricultural work. It changed the urban areas as they now had to have jobs, housing, schools etc.

The Second Reconstruction is dated from 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education decision to 1968 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act. This renowned movement that borrowed from Ghandi’s struggles in India is now a model for the world and achieved much: the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Acts, Brown v. Board of Education, desegregating the military, the successful bus boycott in Montgomery, Al; integrating schools, and the list goes on. The battle this time was over integration and equality not legal status as a rights bearing citizen as it had been in the First Reconstruction. 

The era saw the 1960 Greensboro, NC Woolworth sit ins; the 1961 Freedom Riders; the use of federal troops in 1962 to allow James Meredith to enter University of Mississippi; the 1963 March on Washington and the 16 Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham; the murder of three civil rights workers in the 1964 Freedom Summer; the Selma to Montgomery march over the Edmond Pettis bridge in 1965; the use of federal troops to integrate Little Rock High School in 1967; and by 1968, the pivot of Martin Luther King Jr. to an anti-war and poor people’s campaign. The named heroes from that time are legend and number into the hundreds. The unnamed heroes and those who lost their lives in the struggle are in the millions. The Poor People’s Campaign continues under the leadership of Reverend Barber. In 1968, Bobby Kennedy gave a speech on the Voice of America and said: Things are ‘moving so fast in race relations a Negro could be president in 40 years.’  Exactly 40 years, Barack Obama was elected.

The reconstruction narrative had overtaken the redemption narrative. The New Deal and the Great Society are both policy changes that follow the narrative change. But blowback came.  After the Second Reconstruction when universities became integrated, states stopped funding them. In NY and CA higher education used to be free. When Texas started funding universities, it did not fund any of the eight HBCU’s in Texas. So Black students had to borrow more to go to school hence more debt especially since their families were also poorer. This is how the racist decisions of the past continue to harm the citizens of today and why reparations are relevant.  

The Third Reconstruction

In connection with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, historian Peniel E Joseph has written The Third Reconstruction that he dates from 2020. He argues this is a struggle for dignity just as important as the two earlier ones. After outlining the gains and losses of the First and Second Reconstructions, he believes that the uprising over the George Floyd murder in 2020 is responsible for the progress we have seen thus far.  He analogizes the January 6, 2021 insurrection to the Civil War and believes the Third Reconstruction will be more like the First than the Second. In all three, we see political violence and progress at the same time.  Joseph focuses on accurate history as the story we tell influences the actions we take. We all have probably participated in an exercise where someone runs into a classroom or seminar and attacks the professor or takes a briefcase and runs out. When you ask people what they saw, everyone saw something different e.g. what the person looked like, what they did, where they came from or went. Studies show that eyewitness testimony is in fact the least reliable kind because everyone sees through their own skewed lens. 

The progress in this Third Reconstruction is the first Black woman supreme court justice, first Black woman vice president, the removal of confederate memorials and flags, BLM, #metoo, #timesup, the spotlight on law enforcement violence against African Americans, and the 1619 project. 

Backlash has resulted in the end of the voting rights act with Shelby, for-profit prisons that are an extension of convict leasing, the enduring racial income gap, the continued segregation of schools and neighborhoods, and the end of the racial justice consensus with attacks on affirmative action, DEI and CRT. 

Joseph reminds us how the Black struggle has helped other groups of marginalized people including women, immigrants, and Jewish. Affirmative action has most benefited white women, removal of racially restrictive property covenants also benefits Jews and Asians, the voting rights legislation helps Native Americans etc. He encourages the narrative to focus on us all as humans, create the beloved community and focus on joy rather than punishment and exploitation.  Joseph argues that the Third Reconstruction is about dignity rather than either legal status or equality. He reminds us that democracy is a lifelong relationship. I would encourage Americans to confront the original sin of slavery of African Americans and genocide of Native Americans so we can move on.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

The DEI and CRT battles today are extensions of the culture wars of the past.  Statistically DEI efforts have not proven to be a success. Such efforts have been on the radar since the 1960s when it was called affirmative action and while the intent is good as a response to social justice failures, it has not been clear, funded, or recruited well. With white supremacy rising, whites are claiming they are being discriminated against when they are just losing their privilege. 

One classic study was done in classrooms with videotaping of the teacher’s instruction. By the videotaping it was shown that she called on boys far more than girls though she didn’t believe it herself until she looked at the video. The goal was to ensure that she called on boys and girls equally. When she did, the boys complained that they were being ignored. They were so used to getting outsized attention, that when the attention was equal, they felt slighted because their privilege declined.

Other studies have been done about employment. The same resume was sent out for the same job with one change – the name of the applicant. Then the employers were asked their evaluation of the qualifications of the two applicants. They uniformly said the male applicant was qualified and the female was not. Yet it was the exact same resume.  

I tried this in a law class I taught in Vladivostok, Russia.  I got the same result.  The students couldn’t believe it. They had to look at the other resumes to be sure they were the same. Studies have been done with white and Black names with the same result and with white or Black men with prison records. White men with prison records were more likely to get a call back for an interview than Black men without prison records. White men with high school education were more likely to get a call back than Black men with college education. Inclusion should mean at a minimum a fair chance. That does not exist today.

One claim of DEI is to give employees the tools to succeed. If you don’t understand the culture, it’s hard to know what proper tools are needed to succeed.  A friend who worked for IRC told me that one of her co-workers took three men who were asylum seekers to their designated home. It was late at night, and she left them there with a pizza for dinner.

In the morning when she returned, the pizza remained on the kitchen table in its box – untouched. When she asked why they didn’t eat it, they said they didn’t know what it was or that it was something to eat. I learned in my 15 years abroad to ask the local people what they needed and then to listen. This is not common in international work.

At a posting in Algeria, they didn’t have a space for me yet so put me in with about 10 Kenyan women working in a secretarial pool. One day the bosses came in and held a conference at the front of the room with a lot of stupid things being said. No input was solicited from the women including me. When they left, I got up, shut the door, and said to the other women, “Was that BS just racist and sexist or what?”  They totally agreed and told me all the dirt about what had been going on though other Americans refused to acknowledge it. Changes commenced.

The DEI movement was put on steroids after the George Floyd uprising. But for many it was a quick photo-op without making lasting change yet it fueled backlash. Companies don’t roll out a new product or service without research and a plan. But they did with DEI. Rather than a crisis response, after all racism is not new, we need a system-based approach and a cultural change not just a few new hires.

Often the DEI program was not set up for success as the proper supports weren’t given because they did not understand the culture and the existing problem. DEI as a stand-alone function does not work, it needs to be embedded in every part of the organization. It must be reframed as simply a way of behaving to ensure equity, treat people fairly, and respect individual differences.  

DEI is for everyone not just African Americans but all people of color, disabled people, women, and every marginalized group.  All of us, if we live long enough, will be disabled at some point whether by an accident or health issues. It’s also for helping people advance in their careers by giving them the right supports. Those supports don’t look the same for everyone. 

Within the U.S. we have very different cultures too. There is no cookie cutter for equity. In one job I found that the secretary needed early hours due to childcare issues, the paralegal needed late hours due to elder care issues, the lawyer needed flexible hours due to health care issue, and the receptionist wanted to go to college, so we worked around her classes. Maternity leave and childcare benefit all parents; health care supports all workers; flex time and work from home options benefit everyone with childcare or elder care responsibilities but it also saves money and the environment as well.  

Business studies show that a diverse work force all the way to the C suite makes for a better, more profitable, and more sustainable business.  But we cannot forget that anti-Black racism is the default in this country.

Since the ruling against affirmative action in college admissions, colleges have had to devise new methods of increasing diversity such as using zip codes to recruit, recruiting from Title I schools, seeking students who will be the first in their family to go to college, and other methods such as top 5% or top 1% of high school seniors are guaranteed admission to state schools. I benefited from this since I was the valedictorian and so was automatically admitted to the state university.  These methods focus more on poverty and will include all people but because poverty is concentrated within people of color, they will benefit the most. 

Some businesses and some states are doubling down and basically giving the Supreme Court (sic) the finger like the ABA. Arizona has a DEIA office at the Governors level going full steam ahead. The Black Congressional Caucus just released a report: What Good Looks Like:  A Corporate Accountability Report on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Black Congressional Caucus, September 2024. They surveyed Fortune 500 companies and got 189 responses. Those businesses confirmed that diversity is a business and talent imperative. 

The anti-DEI campaign is being run by the MAGA loyalists and supported by conservative attorneys general.  Anti-DEI bills have been introduced in 30 states and federal programs that provide capital to Black small business are attacked. Arizona legislators have introduced anti-DEI bills for several years but so far those that have passed have been vetoed. But it has its effect. On 9/11/24, the paper announced that Queen Creek banned DEI training for employees and bars affirmative action practices.  

While the racial wealth gap has in fact grown since COVID-19, in 2020 after the Floyd uprising, these corporations pledged over $50 billion toward DEI. Some like Wells Fargo simply faked interviews. However such efforts are overwhelmingly supported along race, party, and generational lines. 

Fearless Fund is a venture capital firm that makes small grants of $20,000 exclusively to Black women entrepreneurs of small business. In 2022, Black women received less than 1% of the $288 billion that venture capital firms handed out to business. The fund requires the business to be 51% black woman. One of the MAGA groups sued under §42 U.S.C. 1981 that prohibits race discrimination in making contracts. Fearless argued it was a remedial program to make up a tiny bit for past discrimination. A remedial program is an exception if it is to correct racial imbalance and does not trammel the rights of others or create an absolute bar. The 11^th circuit court panel in Atlanta found the grant program unconstitutional because it created an absolute bar though whites could own 49% of the business and only had to collaborate with Black women. Fearless had to give up the program but vows not to give up the mission.

The Congressional Black Caucus report outlined the best practices that are working. They focus on 12 areas: leadership accountability, data disaggregation, culture and engagement, talent channels, retention and turnover rates, promotion and internal hire rates, C-suite and senior leadership diversity, board diversity, pay equity, supplier diversity, civic activities, and progress on DEI commitments. The survey found underrepresentation of certain groups in leadership positions and disparities in retention and advancement rates. To move forward, DEI aspirations must become measurable actions with outcomes. Like changing from “affirmative action” when that term was made toxic, now DEI has been made toxic and we’ll have to find a different term to do the same thing.

What is Critical Race Theory?  

This is perhaps one of the most hypocritical of the lies told by the MAGA. Critical race theory argues that U.S. social institutions (e.g., the criminal justice system, education system, labor market, housing market, and healthcare system) are structurally racist because of the laws, regulations, rules, and procedures. This is a model of analysis taught in advanced courses not in any elementary or high schools. It means that if racism disappeared today, the inequitable outcomes would not disappear because they are embedded in the structure. 

That the MAGA crowd has people believing it was taught in grade school proves how successful lying can be and bodes ill for the U.S. In the 1980s the fights were against women and Hispanic studies in universities and Hispanic studies.  Then the bogie man was multiculturalism. They were successful. Women studies is mostly gone, and Hispanic studies is destroyed at least in AZ.  These are fights over history i.e. the narrative. 
Today CRT is the new bogeyman for people unwilling to acknowledge our country’s racist history and how it impacts the present. Those criticizing CRT either don’t know the history e.g. racially restrictive covenants on property still exist today though not enforceable or believe that such discrimination should be in the structure of the U.S. But parroting anti-CRT rhetoric has been an effective way to attack the gains made by African Americans.

CRT does not teach whites to hate Blacks or the U.S. The point of CRT is that while people living today did not create the problem, they are still benefiting from the structure and need to take action to end it.  Those attacking CRT want redemption i.e. a return of white supremacy. The statement made by the U.S. Supreme Court (sic) that we should follow MLK and only consider content of character and not color of skin would be appropriate if we didn’t live in a racist society.  But we do. Sociologist Victor Ray said, “making laws outlawing critical race theory confirms the point that racism is embedded in the law.”   

CRT started with critical legal studies that challenged the idea that the law is fair and impartial.  One must look at the power relationships to understand society. Looking at power structures takes you inevitably to race.  As the gains of the Second Reconstruction were being stripped away, lawyers started asking what was going on under the covers.  We must have ways to talk about race that are intelligent and sensitive. Refusing to talk about it is neither.

Charles A. Price, associate professor in the Department of Policy, Organizational and Leadership Studies, College of Education and Human Development has a three-part perspective:  the individual level i.e. how, where, when did you grow up?  All three of those vectors influence your experience and ultimate conclusions.  How much do you know about real history? You need that to know how we got where we are.  Next do you understand how race works on the structural level i.e. redlining, refusal of funding to HBCUs and to Black farmers; quotas for school attendance; legacy admissions to colleges, societies, associations, unions; “grandfathering” property and rules; credit and loans; and tax and insurance disparities.  Those things are not changed by a state of mind. Lastly you need to understand how to put all three of these vectors together.  This is college level work not elementary school.

The bills that have been passed around the U.S. prohibit the discussion, training, and/or orientation that the U.S. is inherently racist as well as any discussions about conscious and unconscious bias, privilege, discrimination, and oppression. These parameters also extend beyond race to include sex discrimination lectures and discussions. Arizona passed one bill that was overturned by the court in 2021 but passed another in 2023.  

The 2023 bill is embedded in A.R.S. §15-717.02 that reads:

15-717.02. Prohibited instruction; disciplinary action; legal action; civil penalty

(L21, Ch. 404, sec. 21)

A. A teacher, administrator or other employee of a school district, charter school or state agency who is involved with students and teachers in grades preschool through the twelfth grade may not use public monies for instruction that presents any form of blame or judgment on the basis of race, ethnicity or sex.

B. A teacher, administrator or other employee of a school district, charter school or state agency who is involved with students and teachers in grades preschool through the twelfth grade may not allow instruction in or make part of a course the following concepts:

1. One race, ethnic group or sex is inherently morally or intellectually superior to another race, ethnic group or sex.

2. An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race, ethnicity or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.

3. An individual should be invidiously discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of the individual’s race, ethnicity or sex.

4. An individual’s moral character is determined by the individual’s race, ethnicity or sex.

5. An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race, ethnicity or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed by other members of the same race, ethnic group or sex.

6. An individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress because of the individual’s race, ethnicity or sex.

7. Academic achievement, meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist or were created by members of a particular race, ethnic group or sex to oppress members of another race, ethnic group or sex.

C. An attorney acting on behalf of a public school may request a legal opinion of the attorney general or county attorney as to whether a proposed use of school district resources would violate this section.

D. A teacher who violates this section shall be subject to disciplinary action, including the suspension or revocation of the teacher’s certificate, as the state board deems appropriate.

E. The attorney general or the county attorney for the county in which an alleged violation of this section occurs may initiate a suit in the superior court in the county in which the school district, charter school or state agency is located for the purpose of complying with this section.

F. For each violation of this section, including subsequent or continued violations, the court may impose a civil penalty not to exceed $5,000 per school district, charter school or state agency where the violation occurs.

G. This section does not preclude any training on sexual harassment or lessons on recognizing and reporting abuse. 

This law is for K-12 where CRT was not being taught anyhow. On one hand if it were read textually i.e. strictly by the words on the page, it sounds like a good idea and a way to prevent racist and sexist teachers from spreading racism and sexism in the classroom. No one should teach that one race or sex is better, deserves blame or shame, is responsible for everyone in that group, is more moral etc. But paragraph (B) (7) suggests that a problem exists about academic achievement, meritocracy or hard work. I doubt any teacher ever taught that those things are racist or sexist, but the problem is that the MAGA crowd is the one suggesting that non-white people aren’t academic achievers, want promotions without merit, and don’t believe in hard work. So if there is a MAGA teacher teaching this, then it should stop him.   

The problem is that we live in an upside-down world and it’s the MAGA crowd claiming that by teaching accurate history or principles of equality, a teacher is blaming and shaming white children. Of course it’s nonsense but that hasn’t stopped them from claiming it. The result is a chilling effect on the teachers who don’t have the time or energy or desire to be caught up in a battle over nonsense that could result in them losing their license. The result is that they censor themselves and thus deny all students an accurate and rich class. It also gives a societal message about the importance and weight of white supremacy.  

Conclusion

DEI and CRT are battles in the Culture Wars that started back in the 80s and included  abortion, guns, separation of church and state, privacy, recreational drug use, homosexuality, censorship, sex, and gender roles. These battles are still on-going. Some of you may remember the kerfuffle about the Bell Curve that claimed whites were innately smarter than Blacks. Today the thinking is that all intelligence tests are bunk. In the past, the white supremacists attacked “political correctness.”  Today they attack “woke.” They are all social wedge issues to divide the country. They are related to but distract from the underlying divide of race, sex, and class. One side is trying to shift the narrative back to redemption by focusing on what they think white men have lost. The other side is trying to shift the narrative forward to constructing the more perfect union envisioned in the Preamble to the Constitution for all of us to thrive.