Aaron Sheehan-Dean
speaker
924 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard Feb 2026
last heard 24 Aug
Aaron Sheehan-Dean’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
So it becomes Colfax becomes a kind of model pursued never at that that degree of specificity.
But the rifle clubs of Mississippi in 1874 and 75 are key to deterring enough black voters that Democrats return to power there.
Yeah.
I mean, the end of the Colfax massacre is quite tragic.
The case is called Cruikshank and it goes to the Supreme Court.
It's actually decided not until 1876 or 77.
But one of the things that happens that gives us some indication of that northern white resolve is that the court dramatically narrows the reading of the 14th Amendment to prohibit only
state actions which infringe on the constitutional rights of people so if you the constitution protects your right to go vote and what the justices say is only if the state of louisiana had organized a state militia that then drove you from the polls would there be a constitutional infringement if everyday citizens organize themselves as a militia and deny you your constitutional rights
The 14th Amendment provides no relief.
And for modern Americans, it's a just totally bizarre and counterintuitive reading, both of the intent and of the letter of the 14th Amendment, which are to absolutely protect the rights of citizens without regard to race or color in their exercise of constitutionally protected rights, the vote being arguably the most important of these.
And so that decision has ramifications for a long time because it reduces the scope of what the federal government is responsible for protecting.
long into the 20th century
They do.
I think it's also important.
There's a reason it happens in Louisiana, which is that Louisiana, unlike a lot of other southern states, had a very old and well-established mixed-race community, what we would regard as a black elite in New Orleans primarily.
And this is an important point for listeners, is that
The vigor of the white reaction, the counter reaction to Reconstruction, is in some ways a demonstration or evidence of the black success in Reconstruction.
That is, if black southerners had not built schools and had not gained some modest home ownership and had not taken political office, there would have been nothing for white southerners to object to.
And so at the same time that we acknowledge sort of all of the violence and the horror, it's important that the kind of prequel to that is the fact that black people, particularly formerly enslaved people, who are now building their communities on their own, I mean, Southern states are not providing much support in this, are successful enough
that they develop the political capacity and, as I say, some modest economic success, that it then engenders this very vigorous white reaction.
Showing 141–160 of 924 · page 8 of 47
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