via nytimes.com
Black leaders are succeeding while others are being targeted.
During Reconstruction, Black leaders brought about a substantial increase in Black political power. According to www.history.com, roughly 2,000 Black people held public office. The Freedmen’s Bureau is a prime example of this leadership. Yet, at the same time, the Ku Klux Klan murdered a lot of Black elected officials during the Reconstruction Era. Today, Black political leadership experiences highs and lows as well. Obama’s presidency brought forth more prominent, visible Black leaders, such as the former Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. Yet, at the same time, other Black elected officials were believed to have been politically targeted. In 2013, the arrests of Black elected officials, such as Assemblyman Eric Stevenson, State Sen. Malcolm Smith and State Sen. John Sampson, occurred. State Sen. James Sanders Jr. declared that these political attacks were not a coincidence.
Groups with political power still kill countless Black people.
The Ku Klux Klan gained momentum during Reconstruction. According to Jonathan Bryant, a professor of history at Georgia Southern University, the primary goal of the KKK was to bring about “political defeat of the Republican Party and the maintenance of absolute white supremacy in response to newly gained civil and political rights by Southern Blacks.” They did so by way of violence. Today’s police officers exhibit behaviors and practices that are similar to that of the KKK.
