EOTO REACTION POST # 2

 The EOTO lessons were very interesting, although the two specific lessons I found most intriguing were about the sundown towns and the Wilmington massacre.. these were most appealing to me for many reasons. 

The sundown towns specifically for the dynamic, this was a time where whites were still very bold about their racism and hate towards African Americans, so why only do the violence in the night, we know that around this time cops weren't doing any arresting of white people for any harmful acts they commit against negro's, so why were these sundown towns so infamous? Around 1890, majority of communities that had an integrated population, the white people found ways to get rid of their black population. For example, when an African American was accused of doing a crime, they that individual as a scapegoat to accuse the entire black community of bad blood for that one persons crime, and would use this to then forced them. They also forced negro's out of town through violent acts such as attacking them physically or going to extents such as setting their homes on fire. Other communities and towns simply became sundown towns through social, economic, and physical oppression. They constantly attempted to make it impossible for black people to purchase places to live as well as land and denied them from needed services provided by the city such as doctors, stores, etc.. I learned that Some sundown towns even went as far as sounding a loud siren at sunset to mark their territory and warn any black people in the area to get out of town to avoid the danger yet to come. Generally sundown policies were unspoken rules but the threat of violence was well understood.

I found the Wilmington massacre very interesting simply because it's so close to where we are right now, and to think how far this town and area has come specifically from racism is crazy to think about. The Wilmington Massacre is widely recongized as one of the single most horrifying events in At the history of the United States, where the only known violent overthrow of a legally elected government in U.S. history. On November 10, 1898, a mob of white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina, executed a violent act of attempting to dismantle this integrated government, which had been put into office by both African American and white . This act caused the deaths of hundreds of Black citizens and the forced the disfranchisement of African Americans from the city, shifting the racial and political layout of Wilmington for many years to come. Post-Civil War, Wilmington had one of the largest Black populations in North Carolina and was developing a flourishing African American middle class. Negros had the right of voting , and many held local influential roles in the city’s government and economic system. The Wilmington Massacre practically marked the end this brief period of influence that Black citizens held in North Carolina and helped set the stage of the devastating establishment of Jim Crow laws across the South. The massacre remains a gloomy in American history, symbolizing the violent lengths to which white supremacists would go to maintain dominance and intimidation while suppressing African American political and social advancements. 

All of the EOTO's were interesting, but for these reasons I found these two the most appealing to me.