Renewed interest in Ulysses S. Grant’s entire career, as evidenced by the recent documentary “Grant” and books (e.g. “The Man Who Saved the Union” by H.W. Brands; “Grant” by Ron Chernow), adds perspective to the current protests.
Grant engineered passage of the 15th Amendment establishing African American suffrage and sent troops to combat the Ku Klux Klan. Unfortunately, only Grant’s popularity as the Union’s military savior was able to accomplish such measures; few Grant-Lincoln Republican Party members showed interest in maintaining justice for African Americans and Native Americans after Grant’s presidency ended in 1877.
Not until nearly 100 years later was any new significant civil rights legislation affecting people of color enacted and that was recently watered down by Republicans. Meanwhile, the dominant U.S. culture has progressed even more slowly toward racial justice than its laws.
Thus such depressing perspectives as “We Cannot Wait for White America to End Racism” (Time, May 29) are entirely logical.
