RACISM + POLITICS
Why "Special Police Units" for State Elections Threaten Our Democracy
When threatening Black Americans becomes public policy
To understand why "elections security" has racist undertones, you have to know the story of America's first Black governor, Pickney Benton Steward Pinchback. His father, Major Williams Pinchback, was a wealthy White Mississippi plantation owner who enslaved his mother, Eliza Steward but emancipated her during her pregnancy. That is how P.B.S. Pinchback was born a free man. But, that freedom was fragile. Once his father died, "the family fled to Ohio, fearing that White relatives might attempt to re-enslave them." Black men like Pinchbad had to fight for democracy in a system designed to exclude them.
After Union soldiers captured New Orleans, P.B.S, Pinchback joined the Union Army, recruiting other Black men. He served as the 2nd Louisiana Regiment Native Guard Infantry but quit the position because of discrimination against Black officers. Anti-Black racism was a redline for Pinchback, but not America. Even after the Civil War, Black people struggled to acquire the rights promised to all citizens under the Constitution. So, P.B.S. Pinchback became a politician, gaining notoriety in New Orleans as a progressive Republican veteran.
