Confederate leaders grounded racial inequality in the nation’s founding itself

Evidence

On April 12, 1860, Davis objected to appropriating funds for educating Blacks in Washington, DC. “This Government was not founded by negroes nor for negroes,” he said, but “by white men for white men.” The bill was based on the false assertion of racial equality, he stated. The “inequality of the white and black races” was “stamped from the beginning.” — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 554