‘Lost cause’ of our nation’s brutal racism permeates society, distorting history along the way

Few images from the violent attacks on peacefully demonstrating teens from civil rights-era demonstrations convey the brutality of the era more than scenes from 1963 Birmingham and the powerful blasts from fire hoses and water cannons. Pressure from the hoses and water cannons — as much as 100 PSI — could break ribs. Rip out hair. Segregationists pummeled the youths marching for voting rights the way a gardener might scatter fresh-cut cut grass with a leaf blower. To the men behind those hoses and cannons, the youths and other Black people counted as little more than yard clippings because white Southerners as children fed on a “lost cause” narrative allowing them to think of their activities as something noble or patriotic. The adults beating well-dressed teenagers at lunch counter sit-ins, the women haranguing the Little Rock Nine as they entered school and others sitting in White Citizen Council meetings were taught about the lost cause. They acted according to those teachings. Current efforts on the right to erase or dilute our racial history should frighten us. Attempting to erase the past, alter textbooks and misremember history, we are creating new generations of people committed to our centuries-old racial caste system....