Southern History Series: Jim Crow Alabama

Editor’s Note: This is a work in progress.

There is a growing public interest in “white supremacy. “

I happen to know a great deal about “white supremacy.” I understand it as the system of race relations which existed in the South with the brief exception of the Reconstruction period from colonial times down until 1965. Both slavery and segregation existed within the construct of white supremacy which rested on the belief that Dixie was and ought to remain a White Man’s Country.

The White Cock was the official symbol of the Alabama Democratic Party until 1966. The “Black Panther” was created by Stokely Carmichael’s Lowndes County Freedom Association as a contrast to the White Cock. The idea was to create a symbol of black pride and black power.

What did the White Cock symbolize? Why did White Alabamians choose that symbol to represent their political party? Traditionally, the male rooster or cockerel symbolizes pride, honesty, courage, vigilance, arrogance, strength, watchfulness and flamboyance. In contrast to the mainstream conservative, which is defined by effeminacy and cowardice, it holds its head up high, struts with confidence and vigorously defends its women and territory. The White Cock symbolized an honor based culture.

In Celtic mythology, the rooster is a symbol of the underworld that screeches out warnings in danger and calls out for the souls of the fallen in battle. In Greek mythology, the rooster was a sacred animal of the divine Apollo who announces the rise of the sun. In Christianity, the rooster is a symbol of Christ’s passion and religious vigilance and redemption. Naturally, the average person doesn’t know any of this because conservatives also failed to preserve that aspect of our heritage.

The Democrats are the real racists.

We haven’t lived under “white supremacy” since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 which revolutionized Southern politics by taking the Black Belt, which was the stronghold of the segregationists, and placing pretty much the entire region under black majority rule.

The phenomenon we are experiencing today is better understood as White populism. The current system of race relations which dates back to the late 1960s/early 1970s is breaking down. It is breaking down because the Civil Rights Movement was based on the assumption of racial equality and the notion that blacks could be successfully integrated into mainstream American society by dismantling racism and the Jim Crow system. It was assumed at the time by liberal integrationists that race relations would improve and that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s colorblind utopia would be shortly realized.

A half century later, White identity and White grievances are still uniquely held to be illegitimate. The only role for White people in mainstream American society is to be guilt-ridden individualists forever a top the cucking stool of repentance. Every other group down to transsexuals is encouraged to celebrate their identity and organize to advance their political interests. The role of mainstream conservatives in this system is to forever lose the culture war to the Left as its loyal opposition while vigorously policing the boundaries of the mainstream to root out any sign of White identity or nationalism. The people who are disaffected with this state of affairs are White populists and nationalists.