Mary - Journeytohistory

Chapter 13Losing the Peace291It was a dear price that the whites of the South paid for this color line.Since all other issues were subordinated to the issue of "the Negro," it becameimpossible to have free and open discussion of problems affecting all the people.There could be no two-party system, for the temptation to call upon blacksto decide between opposing factions would be too great. Interest in politicswaned to a point at which only professionals, who skillfully deflected the interestfrom issues to races, were concerned with public life. The expense of maintaininga double system of schools and of other public institutions was high, butnot too high for advocates of white supremacy, who kept the races apart in orderto maintain things as they were.Peace had not yet come to the South. The new century opened tragicallywith 214 lynchings in the first two years. Clashes between the races occurredalmost daily, and the atmosphere of tension in which people of both races livedwas conducive to little more than a struggle for mere survival, with a feeblegroping in the direction of progress. The law, the courts, the schools, and almostevery institution in the South favored whites. This was white supremacy.