Does Another Thaddeus Stevens Exist?

By E. Faye Williams
The Washington Informer
https://www.washingtoninformer.com/

With all of this shameful racist stuff going on more than usual, I took the time to read about a man who long ago set the standard for white people to step up and not just say what somebody else should do or what this nation owes Black people. I know it sounds strange for me to be looking for white people to do the right thing, when they hear and see wrong perpetrated against Black people or anybody who is not white. As Sam Cooke said, “It’s been a long time coming,” but today, I came in contact with a man who was white and did the right thing about racial respect and justice.

If you haven’t read about Thaddeus Stevens, you’ve missed a man who kept hope alive to his dying day. History just wrote him off like those who’ve tried to erase Black history! Mr. Stevens was sort of mentioned in high school — which was a long time ago for some of us, and I doubt that younger people have heard more about him than we, of a certain age, did.

I’ll tell you about this man. I’m not surprised that Trump, DeSantis and others will soon try to erase all of us from history books. They want to get rid of all Black history. Mr. Stevens had a disability and that probably gave him some sense of what it’s like to be different from others around him. You don’t often see me writing about white people’s history on racial justice, but I just had to bring Stevens back to history for doing the right thing years ago.

Stevens was so much better than others from his time. Abe Lincoln is often given more credit than he deserved for freeing enslaved Black people. While Stevens respected Lincoln, he schooled us on how Lincoln really had no interest in interfering with slavery–he did what was in his best interest.

Stevens said that just ending slavery was not enough. Former slaves were due land and resources for what had been happening to them. He maintained that land distribution was owed to them because freedom without economic independence meant nothing. He was outspoken and had no interest in compromise. He disagreed with Andrew Johnson and supported impeachment of him. Stevens was so opposed to the way Black people were treated that, before he died, he indicated he didn’t want to be buried in the white cemetery!

White supremacists hated Stevens — and they still hate us for no reason other than our being Black. I’m not calling all white people I know racists, but I don’t see any stepping up to the plate to discredit racism, to support reparations, and to call on Trump and his current crew to not be so obviously racist!

President John F. Kennedy (not to be confused with Louisiana’s Senator Kennedy) once said that his Harvard education misled him, and he thought that maybe Thaddeus Stevens might have a good point referring to the racial justice he worked for. Voter suppression is back with us, and we must work to dismantle it again. Stevens doesn’t deserve to be erased from history while voter suppression still exists. Are you registered? Did you vote in the presidential election of 2024? What Stevens and others worked for is still a vital issue.

Women who changed their names to the names of their husbands, be sure to have your birth certificate or another document to show you are a U.S. citizen. Otherwise, you might walk out on the street one day and be considered “deportable!”

Whatever you have to prove your citizenship, keep a copy with you. Keep up with the laws and obey them. Stevens was a white man truly fighting for our rights, and was portrayed as an unhinged radical. Let us not do less than he did, or less than John Lewis, Dr. King, Fannie Lou Hamer and others, to ensure our right to vote.

Williams is president of The Dick Gregory Society (www.thedickgregorysociety.org).