As we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, my mind reflects on the progress we have made as a country. We have increased access to education, healthcare, and the ballot, among many other efforts toward the ideal of “a more perfect union.” Yet, I can’t help but think of the issues that still plague our country, including racism, inequality, and exploitation. In no other region are these issues more prevalent than in the South, where the legacy of Reconstruction-era politics persists to this day.
The state I call home, Alabama, redrew its U.S. House of Representatives electoral maps in May, following the decision of the Supreme Court in Louisiana v. Callais. The decision effectively nullified the last safeguard for underrepresented voters in the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In Alabama’s new map, one of two majority-Black districts has been erased and reincorporated into other districts, diluting the Black vote. Alabama was not the only state to redistrict since the Callais decision. Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana have similarly redrawn their maps during a nationwide race to gerrymander.
As I traveled home from my first year at Harvard, the news of Alabama’s redistricting was on my mind. I was raised in a small, rural community in Alabama called Vincent, and although the redistricting would not affect my area, it would still affect Alabamians. After my arrival, I had many conversations with friends, family, and community members alike. Harvard was the main subject of these conversations, during which I often received many identity-related concerns. Comments like “Don’t forget about us when you’re back up there!” or “Remember where you come from” became common remarks. While innocuous, these comments often segued into concerns about President Donald Trump’s imposed restrictions on opportunities at Harvard or the school’s liberal nature, eventually entering the realm of political policy.
It was the latter half of these conversations — the political part — that shocked me. The stereotypes that had been embedded in my understanding of Alabama’s and the broader South’s political makeup were proven wrong. I was pleasantly surprised by the support I found for both progressive politicians, like Senator Bernie Sanders, and progressive ideas like taxing the rich and antitrust laws, which, in retrospect, seem to mirror a national trend. After each conversation, I resolved to get to the root of my belief: Why was my perception of the state of southern politics so surface-level, and why was the South considered undoubtedly Republican?
If you ask most U.S. citizens to categorize the South politically, one answer is expected: the South, as a region, is ruby red Republican.
Recent elections appear to support this claim. The South has generally voted Republican in Presidential elections for the last 46 years. Nevertheless, to write off the South as a monolith of conservative thought detracts from the countless movements, from Reconstruction to the coal-mining unionizations and the Civil Rights Movement, that Southern progressives have fought for — efforts that remediate the issues of the South, like racism and inequality, that trace their origin to the founding of the nation.
The South’s poor education, infrastructure, industry, and living standards are a generational problem rooted in the consequences of the Reconstruction Era. During Reconstruction, relative to the North, the South was an agricultural frontier, industrially underdeveloped, lacking robust hard infrastructure, such as roads and dams, and soft infrastructure, like education and healthcare. It only took 11 years for Reconstruction to fail, and as soon as the troops left the South, the preexisting issues with infrastructure and a newly galvanized form of racism and inequality took hold.
Presently, the issues of Reconstruction have festered. High school education and comprehensive health care systems failed to take hold until the last century, with continued federal efforts to slowly close the gap, leaving lasting deficits. Southern states are constantly rated low on health scorecards, and the mean education rate in the South is 49.27% lower than that of Northern states. A lack of industrialization, relative to the rest of the U.S., in Southern states has left them even more susceptible to the effects of modern market changes.
Since the failure of Reconstruction, progressive efforts have attempted to mend the issues left behind by leaders decades ago. The most famous of these efforts is the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s. Nationally taught, the Civil Rights Movement is one of the most influential events in American and Southern history. It began with the Montgomery Bus Boycotts in Alabama, spread throughout the South, and eventually the rest of the U.S. Protesters used marches, sit-ins, and other civil disobedience tactics to fight against racism, segregation, voter suppression, and other inequalities that stemmed from the reaction to Reconstruction.
Modern reactions to the Civil Rights Movement categorize it as a necessary, yet historically distant event. Yet, the Civil Rights Movement was only 61 years ago, and full integration of schools occurred only roughly 50 years ago, requiring another Supreme Court case. The actions of many Southerners during the Civil Rights Movement have led to the modern stereotype of a “ruby red” South. The modern perceptions of monolithic conservatism can be derived from the fact that many of the opponents of the Civil Rights Movement are still alive, perpetuating the same racist beliefs from before. To focus on these people, and only these people, and not those who joined the Civil Rights Movement, or subsequent movements after, is disingenuous to the work that they did not so long ago.
Another lesser-known progressive movement is the “Coal Wars” during the 1890s-1930s. During this time, coal miners across the nation, especially those in rural Appalachian communities, fought for unionization. These efforts were often met with violence from the coal companies, who hired gunmen and strikebreakers. Several events, like the Battle of Blair Mountain or the Matewan Massacre, made the unionization efforts deadly. The deaths and unionization efforts of the Coal Wars influenced the National Labor Relations Board and the New Deal’s National Industrial Recovery Act, which protected the right to collective bargaining and was the first time the federal government played the role of mediator between unions and companies.
Currently, there are progressive groups like Bright Blue Dots, The Progressive South, and the Southern Policy Law Center that are continuing to combat the issues of inequality, racism, and voting access, among others. Some of their actions include advocacy and funding for progressive causes, legal representation, and positive local press for progressive movements. The most well-known of the groups, the Southern Policy Law Center, is nationally recognized and is a constant reminder of the progressive cause in the South. Similarly, politicians like Governor Andy Beshear, Senator Jon Ossoff, Senator Raphael Warnock, and former President Jimmy Carter represent a continuous progressive shift among voters.
The South is still linked to the specter of Reconstruction through its lasting effects on Southern culture and infrastructure — the most subversive example of this being the stereotypes that surround the South and its inhabitants. The scars of Reconstruction demand that we pay close attention to the nuances of voters in the South, an area still behind the rest of the country in basic quality of life. Importantly, Reconstruction and its related inequality and racism did not just affect the South; these injustices have permeated and stained the history of all 50 states.
Although it seems distant, Reconstruction ties the South, and more broadly, America, back to a time when the country was defining itself, just 150 years ago. In many ways, the current struggles of the South bind America back to its beginnings 250 years ago. But until the shadow of Reconstruction’s failure dissipates and progress is made, I will continue to reflect on our path to “a more perfect union.”
Associate Interviews Editor
