The end of Reconstruction coincided with the dawn of modern racism

Evidence

I would argue that Radical Reconstruction, including most notably the Freedmen’s Bureau (1865–72), hoped and even attempted to realize the goals of utopianism and abolition, and that the destruction of Reconstruction marked the defeat, at least for that historical moment, of the social goals and visions of both. … The period in the 1870s and 1880s following the dissolution of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and the ultimate defeat of Reconstruction, was a postutopian historical moment (utopianism of course reemerged throughout the twentieth century, until its endpoint and transformation in the sixties). These decades witnessed the breakup and disappearance of most of the antebellum utopian communities, contemporaneous with the institution of slavery by other means in the sharecropping Black Belt South, and of systemic, often murderous racism throughout the country. — Marianne DeKoven, Utopia Limited, 890

Categorization

• SHARE: Worth sending to anyone interested in Reconstruction historiography — the simultaneity of the utopian communities’ collapse with the shift from slavery to sharecropping is a striking framing.
• XREF: connects to: The post-Reconstruction abandonment of Black labor led toward world war — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1080; Post-war racism shifted from biological hierarchy to cultural difference. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3126; Racism is a thoroughly modern weapon serving pre-modern struggles — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 181 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Racism is a thoroughly modern weapon serving pre-modern struggles #corroborates (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 181
• Post-war racism shifted from biological hierarchy to cultural difference. #qualifies (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3126
• The post-Reconstruction abandonment of Black labor led toward world war #expands (0.72) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1080
• Racism operates as a changing process rather than a fixed project #expands (0.72)
• Cultural difference has replaced race as the basis for new racisms #qualifies (0.72) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 866
• Past racism was explicit, intentional, and institutionally systematic #qualifies (0.70) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1815