In Prince Edward County, Va., to give just one example, all public schools were closed and public money paid tuition for white children to attend private schools, where they were taught by many of their former public school teachers. Board of Education of Topeka 1954 Supreme Court decision was met with stalling tactics.

Many readers are old enough to remember how the Brown v. Meanwhile, northern cities erupted in race riots as white mobs terrorized the migrants if they attempted to live outside very overcrowded ghettos. The federal government did nothing to challenge this disenfranchisement, in contradiction to the Fifteenth Amendment.Īs the Great Migration to the north escalated (a total of six million people sought a better life), southerners saw their cheap labor disappear and often resorted to violence to stop the exodus. A chapter is given to each of five movements.Īfter the Reconstruction period that followed the Civil War, whites reversed freedmen’s gains by legislating Jim Crow laws segregating the races and virtually ending voting by African Americans throughout the South with poll taxes, ridiculous “literacy tests,” and violence, both real and threatened.

Given the anger toward minorities that his message tapped among many whites, it is critical that we understand how white rage has operated over 150 years in America.Īnderson’s thesis is that every advance made by African Americans since the end of slavery has been followed by white pushback aimed at regaining control. Meanwhile, he gave no credence to the causes of their rage. He called for “law and order,” referring to incidents when a few individuals taking part in peaceful demonstrations got out of hand. White rage gets little public attention.Īnderson put the final touches on White Rage in July 2015, just after Donald Trump announced his candidacy for President.

Historian Carol Anderson suggests that these demonstrations are the fire, while acts coming from white rage are the kindling that feeds the fire. Ī lot of attention has been given to black rage, which we have seen most recently in street demonstrations following police shootings of unarmed black men.

Dr carol anderson white rage