March: Books 2 & 3

John Lewis is closely associated with the phrase “good trouble” and “necessary trouble.” As someone who was arrested around 40 times, he often ran afoul of the law, but only because the laws themselves were unjust. There is no virtue to abiding by the rules when the rules are designed to harm and shame other human beings. Challenging the status quo might put someone in trouble, but they are doing what is morally right. In addition to challenging unjust laws, trouble is “good” to the extent that it abides by its own set of rules, especially nonviolence, and does not sink to the level of the opponent. By acting better than those who are upholding the laws, the troublemakers prove that right is on their side.

Known as the “KKK” or the Klan for short, this organization is dedicated to using intimidation and violence to roll back the civil rights of Black Americans. It formed shortly after the end of the Civil War, consisting mainly of Confederate veterans seeking to prevent formerly enslaved people from enjoying equal citizenship. Federal troops suppressed the Klan, and it remained dormant until the First World War, where it reemerged as a mass organization devoted to preserving “Americanism” against not only Black people but also Catholics, Jews, and non-white immigrants. Internal divisions weakened this version of the Klan, until it arose once again in the 1950s and 1960s as the most virulent source of resistance against civil rights. Most notoriously, the Klan orchestrated the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls. The backlash against this terrible crime, and the passage of the civil rights movement shortly thereafter, dealt a severe blow to the organization, but chapters persist to the present day.

Even after the Civil War brought about constitutional equality for Black citizens, many aspects of American society legally required the separation of white and Black people. Throughout many Southern states, a system widely known as “Jim Crow” enforced segregation in nearly every aspect of public life, from education to water fountains. Other forms of segregation prevailed beyond the South, including formal separation of the races in the US Army until after World War II, and informal residential segregation known as “redlining.” The Supreme Court affirmed segregation in the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson, provided that public facilities were “separate but equal.” The Court reversed this decision with respect to public schools in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) which inspired a broader challenge against formal segregation, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.