Trump v. Barbara · ¶92

This was not for lack of trying to survive and belong on the freedmen’s part. They constructed churches, schools, and mutual-aid societies—safe zones amidst America’s racialized social and economic order. Outside those enclaves, however, freed Blacks were characterized as unassimilable and incapable of full civic participation. Their humanity was disregarded. Serious doubts about their claims to citizenship were also being sown. The reason was clear: “[A]n integrated, race-blind society under the rubric of ‘all men are created equal’—required a societal commitment to” antisubordination principles and practices, i.e., “a well-resourced effort to undo the damage done to black people by slavery.” But “even the most ardent opponents of slavery recoiled” from that prospect.

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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