Formal citizenship still required vigilant enforcement to hold meaning

Evidence

The colored conventions continued their work into the last decade of the nineteenth century. Even with questions about freedom and citizenship settled, giving meaning to these principles required vigilance. And in the years following the defeat of Reconstruction’s period of interracial governance, a push for white rule in the South—in politics, business, and everyday life—surged. Onetime federal allies of Black equality—the Supreme Court and Congress included—backed away from their commitments to a democracy led by Black and white men alike. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 740

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reframing-vs-deviation framework: the retreat of federal allies in the 1890s shows citizenship rights as dependent on ongoing political will, not settled law. — connects to: Citizen vigilance is required because authorities cannot police everything — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 1291