Sublime

The European conception of individual freedom was, by contrast, tied ineluctably to notions of private property.

American exceptionalism, that sense that we are somehow special and ordained as such, is a myth sedimented on Southern prosperity: oil, coal, and cotton. Every piece of evidence of our national distinction has relied upon this wealth of the nation. As you certainly have already gleaned, I do not think genocide, slavery, and exploitation were worth

The incident, forever etched in Hamer’s mind, illuminates the lengths to which white landowners went to maintain their wealth and preserve white supremacy. Indeed, the expansion of landownership and wealth for white people—at the expense of Black people— helped to keep white supremacy firmly in place. It was a lesson Hamer learned at a tender age a

“The historic American practice of relying on voluntary organizations was transformed from pragmatic necessity into a high moral principle, and ultimately political ideology.”58 This ideology would later fuel a uniquely American perception of the nonprofit sector as an alternative, rather than a supplement, to state activities.

In Hamer’s vision, it was the onus of all Americans committed to social justice to address the unfinished work of democracy. “We need people to work for freedom, now! Not freedom tomorrow, but we want freedom now,” she declared.101 And

But no one speaks of the realized effects of 400 years of institutionalized slavery on white people.

The peculiarity which has produced the situation I describe is really this: that the new sentiment of humanitarianism has come, when the old sentiment of aristocracy has not gone. Social superiors have not really lost any old privileges; they have gained new privileges, including that of being superior in philosophy and philanthropy as well as in r

the papers of the Southern Conference Education Fund, is my mother talking in 1974 about the indigenous prison struggle, meaning Black Southerners recognizing that locking people up was a tool of social control.