Reading the history of Cairo, IL and noticing that rioters are largely absolved of crimes

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decade-long boycott of white-owned businesses,

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safest places in cairo during 10 year protest

What an absolutely depressing place these days.

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There's plenty to be upset about, but relitigating the sorry history of race relations in the mid century is a poor starting point.

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I do agree that there’s no use relitigating them, but sometimes if you go look at the history of what happened, it’s not always as clear cut as the headline

For instance, Tulsa Race Riots. Absolutely terrible story and unjustified. But if you ever look at the history of what triggered it, a black mob thought a young man had been lynched (he had not.). The sheriff defused the situation but as they were leaving a scuffle broke out that turned into gun fire and 10 white men and 2 black men were dead.

What happened afterward was horrific and a blight on our history.

But if you listen to modern sensitivities, white people just hated Greenwood and Black Wall Street and firebombed the area to keep those uppity black people from rising up.

Completely false.

I’m not saying to reimagine the history of it, but don’t present it as one day white people just decided to firebomb a neighborhood. Chauvin didn’t just decide that today is the day I’m going to choke out a black man.

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But then ignores all that and says the reason for the town’s decline is a decline in river trade.

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River trade has not declined that much. The interstates killed Cairo. I57 and I24 bypass the town that is river locked on 3 sides. Before this there were two US highway bridges that linked KY,IL, and MO. Now nobody but locals use them. And it is a shithole. I am from nearby Paducah and am very familiar with Cairo.

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What an absolutely depressing place these days.

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I used to stop overnight there on my yearly drive to Chicago during the 80s and 90s. It looked abandoned back then. The only motel used a big book to sign your name like The Dodge House Hotel in Gunsmoke.

The only business I saw was Nelm's Frosty Boy which was closed in winter.

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Before this there were two US highway bridges that linked KY,IL, and MO.

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Still have to use the Dorena Ferry at Hickman to get across to MO. No bridges for quite a ways there. Hickman used to be a booming port on the Mississippi until the railroads diverted commercial traffic to Fulton. Cairo's downward slide began about the same time for similar reason, being that it's at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

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but most of the "race riots" from the 20s through the 60s that occurred were do you outrageous barbarism on the part of whites.

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Why don't you acknowledge the shite we are talking about in this thread instead of deflecting?

We hear by the minute how shitty we white people are.

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Black Wall Street

Whenever I hear about the Tulsa riots and Black Wall Street, no one ever explains what made BWS successful

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Its so over exaggerated.

Its was several dozen blocks of black businesses, not akin to Wall Street.

However it was shitty on the part of the violent mobs regardless of status.

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Eh. I think that's too kind. Take a look at the Wilmington coups. And what happened to the perpetrators?

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I’m not saying we don’t take atrocities and call them that or brush over them. We should rightfully call out evil.

What I’m saying is that we should have nuance to look at actual causes of events.

Rosa Parks is a great story. I’m so glad it brought about change. But it also was staged and they chose her because the original situation (Claudette Colvin) was an unwed pregnant mother and they thought they needed a better face of the movement.

Just implying that a nuanced eye helps for better national dialogue and less demagoguery.