100 - What I saw in Richmond MLK Day 2020 - Audio Essay - Evan Matthew Papp

I wrote this essay after witnessing the protest in front of the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia on January 20th, 2020. A year later, as I read it out loud, I am more convinced than ever about the concepts outlined and the conclusion reached.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

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The ghosts of the American Civil War continue to haunt us today.

The Civil War officially ended with the surrender of the secessionist leadership of the Confederate Army on April 9, 1865.

Six days later, Abraham Lincoln was murdered by Confederate assassins.

The death of President Lincoln was also the death knell of his peace plan — to reconstruct and industrialize the south, integrate the U.S. economy through rail and internal improvements, reform land rights and redistribute power away from the Southern Aristocracy to landless white peasants and former black slaves.

Yet since the end of the civil war, the failed promise of uprooting the cancerous seeds of poverty, racism and exploitation means they have only grown and strengthened throughout the land.

Without hyper attention to organize a collective solution, we may see this wonderful and messy project called Democracy come to an indefinite pause in the near future.

As 2020 unfolds, I sometimes feel like the ideology that drove the mind of the Southern Confederate traitors, who ultimately surrendered after losing the battle they started, are now finally, many generations later, on the verge of winning their war.

 

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Read the full essay at:

https://www.empathymedialab.com/post/what-i-saw-in-richmond-martin-luther-king-day-january-2020t