Well you guys, it sorta worked!

With enough bullying I got Nisha to send me something.

SORTA. She ain’t write me anything, but she sent me an article.

But I’ll make it work.

TODAY IN BLACK HISTORY…. In 1870, Congress passes a Resolution to readmit the State of Mississippi.  To end martial law and be readmitted into Congress, southern states were forced to overturn any pro-slavery legislation in their state constitutions. Although some states initially refused to comply, all eventually accepted the conditions and were slowly readmitted into Congress.

So. Lemme tell you how BHFOTDs usually work. I alternate between dicking off at work and working super hard because I HAVE WORK TO DO, but also I ENJOY TELLING Y’ALL STUFF ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE. Then randomly I’ll get an idea, or see something somewhere or in this case have my sissie send me something that will spark whatever stuff I decide to write. And THEN, I’ll do a little research, very little OBVIOUSLY because I AM AT WORK AND I HAVE WORK TO DO. But some. I’ll look around to make sure my fact isn’t a crock of shit or incorrectly dated (if my fact is one of these here TODAY IN BLACK HISTORY type things).

NOW. I just looked up this here fact and this is a direct quote from one of the random sites I came across: “The period of post-war reconstruction brought about an era of progress and positive change for race relations in American History”

And then my head exploded.

Y’all.

I mean…WE WEREN’T SLAVES ANYMORE. So I mean, PROGRESS.

But then..

ONE: Between 1873 and 1883 the Supreme Court handed down a series of decisions that virtually nullified the work of Congress during Reconstruction. Regarded by many as second-class citizens, blacks were separated from whites by law and by private action in transportation, public accommodations, recreational facilities, prisons, armed forces, and schools in both Northern and Southern states. In 1896 the Supreme Court sanctioned legal separation of the races by its ruling in H.A. Plessy v. J.H. Ferguson, which held that separate but equal facilities did not violate the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.

TWO: From 1882 – 1968, Mississippi lynched a total of 539 Black folks. Which is the highest total of all the states. They also lynched a few white folks. 42 of them to be exact. I would also like to point out that my PARENTS were born in 1948. That being said, I would also like to thank God that my Daddy is from California and wasn’t one of the TWO black people they lynched in that time period.

THREE: Anybody ever heard of Freedom Summer of 1964? If you’ve seen Mississippi Burning, you’ve heard of Freedom Summer. (Cliff Notes Version: In 1964 three Mississippi civil rights workers were murdered on the night of June 21–22 in Neshoba County, Mississippi. The three young men had been working on the “Freedom Summer” campaign, attempting to prepare and register African Americans to vote after they had been disenfranchised since 1890. There was a GIGANTIC Federal investigation and when the state refused to prosecute (because WHY WOULD THEY?) the federal government started chargin’ folks with civil rights violations, a few (7/18) of them even served time.

ANYWAYS.

Yeah. So progress. And positive change.

And I’ll be ME, and say that this is definitely a 3 steps forward, 5 steps back type of situation. Because even though there has been PROGRESS, it seems like people are just finding new and different ways to disenfranchise black people. I mean, if you ask me death by cop is the new lynching.

NOT THAT ANYBODY ASKED ME.

On the OTHER HAND, THIS HAPPENED.

The Cliff Notes version: This is a  speech by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, one of just two African-Americans to have ever served as federal judges in Mississippi. He read it to three young white men before sentencing them for the death of a 48-year-old black man named James Craig Anderson in a parking lot in Jackson, Miss., one night in 2011. They were part of a group that beat Anderson and then killed him by running over his body with a truck, yelling “white power” as they drove off.

In related “this is how math works” comments: Three – Five = Negative Two.