Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

The chapter opens with a list of four girls killed in a church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama in September 1963. News of the atrocity reached the young and brilliant college student Angela Davis, who knew the girls, their families, and the “deadly potential” of American racism from her own experiences in her youth.

Shortly after the explosion, an assassin killed John F. Kennedy. Lyndon Baines Johnson took over the presidency and declared his intention to pass a Civil Rights Act that ruled “discrimination on the basis of race was illegal” (172). According to Reynolds, the problem with the legislation was that it “was a political play” that meant “White people […] could then argue that everything was now fine” (172) because racism had been solved on paper. With white supremacy legally outlawed, it was easier to pretend that it did not exist. The author adds that the legislation was nearly impossible to enforce and caused a backlash from white people unable to confront or challenge ongoing privileges.

Politicians like George Wallace and Barry Goldwater emerged with platforms in favor of segregation and extreme conservativism. Johnson kept power in the face of these conservative threats but also faced criticism from “Black political movements […] who weren’t satisfied with what Johnson was doing for them” (175).