http://bhonline.org/blog2/2011/03/08/the-compromise-of-1877/
The Compromise of 1877
March 8, 2011 No Comments
“…The compromise of 1877 is arguably the most devastating single event in the history of Blacks in America…”
- Min. Louis Farrakhan -
This Harper's Weekly cartoon from 1877 indicates the tension surrounding the presidential race between Hayes & Tilden. (Source: HarpWeek.com)
Minister Louis Farrakhan spoke the above words, Feb. 27, in Rosemont, Illinois at the conclusion of the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day convention. His address was nearly 4 hours long but the below excerpt contains his full comments made about the far-reaching impact of this not-often referenced or remembered part of American history.
I took the time to transcribe this portion of the Minister’s statements for myself because this Compromise is not something I have spent a lot, or any time studying. Here are his words about it:
…I want to show you how we have been tricked. There was a great compromise of 1877. It’s called “The Great Betrayal of the Negro.” In 1865, the 13th amendment legally abolished slavery but just 12 years later, in 1877, a decision was taken by the leaders of America that would have profound consequences for the Black man & woman long, long into the future. The Compromise of 1877 is arguably the most devastating single event in the history of Blacks in America but these leaders, and we today in Black History Month know almost nothing about that compromise. May I share it with you?
“The presidential election of 1876 ended in a deadlock between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, who represented Northern sentiment & interests and the Democrat Samuel Tilden, who represented the former slaveholders of the South. The 2 sides fought over the results for weeks & there were even threats of another Civil War and as the political leaders wrangled over who was gonna be president, the bankers – the BANKers – and the industrialists, the so-called robber barons, saw a way to exploit this political discord for their own financial purposes. The American Bankers Association met on Jan the 26th, 1877 and then again on Feb 7 to strategize in the midst of the controversy. The emancipation of the Black man had undermined the very source of their fortunes which was the forced, plantation slave labor of the African. They had always sought to build up the industrial infrastructure of the south: lay down railroads, build roads and shipping ports all in order to supply more cotton for the world markets, not less. But they saw in this political standoff a way to affect their plan to radically change the course of the nation in their direction.
“If Tilden won, they thought, he would be facing a hostile Republican congress, so they believed their plans would be better received under a Hayes administration. Southern politicians, whose votes would be needed for these major projects, could be convinced to go along with the promise of an enormous capital investment and a return to the old racial order. That’s when a group of politicians from both parties secretly convened at the Wormley Hotel in Washington, D.C. to attempt to resolve the conflict & save the Union from political disaster and possibly a 2nd Civil War. After days of negotiations, they finally agreed that if Rutherford B. Hayes were awarded the presidency, listen, he would remove the federal troops in the South who were protecting Black ex-slaves and the former southern slave holding class would be returned to power where they could establish new forms of slavery free from federal control.
“The agreement, in effect, put the bankers and industrialists in control of the southern economy and it forced Blacks back into the cotton fields to finance it all. After 12 years of emancipation, Blacks would be returned to virtual slavery, denied civil rights and assigned to permanent political, social & economic inferiority. Jim Crow laws took immediate effect and Ku Klux Klan terrorism exploded: lynchings, rapes, mass murders against America’s Black so-called citizens escalated. Black property was stolen , and let me tell you, after the Emancipation Proclamation, Black people, ex-slaves built over 60 towns that they ran, they voted in blocs & put their own people in positions of power but with this Compromise, all their gains were taken away and that decision in that Wormley Hotel would, in effect, nullify the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution. There was a Jewish congressman from Louisiana, William Levy, representing Jewish railroad and cotton investors like the Lehmans, Seligmans, Belmontes and Kempners, they left that Wormley Hotel meeting and from the floor of the United States congress, Mr. Levy gave an impassioned speech that convinced those lawmakers that this wicked agreement, that scholars called the Great Betrayal of the Negro people, was indeed the best policy for the United States of America. The most profound part of this, however, is that on the same day that White America decided on the complete destruction of the Black people, Allah decided that the Saviour to the Black man would be born and both events, the most significant in the history of Black America happened on February 26, 1877 [Date of Master Fard Muhammad's birth]. Now, this is all detailed in our book, The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews…..”
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-compromise-of-1877.htm
Excerpt:
“With the departure of the federal troops, Democrats quickly won control in all of the southern states. Instead of continuing with the Reconstruction efforts to improve civil rights for black freed slaves, the South put an end to many of those advances and brought about an era of poverty and segregation for blacks in the region that would persist for nearly a century. For this reason, blacks often referred to the Compromise of 1877 as the Great Betrayal.”
The Betrayal of the Negro
Trade Paperback · 480 Pages
$19.95 U.S. · $24.00 CAN
ISBN 9780306807589
Da Capo Press
cut and paste in your browser:
http://www.consortiumacademic.com/book.php?isbn=9780306807589&disc=18#
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