In 1925, John Scopes, a Dayton, Tenn., public school science teacher, thought evolution was a reality and that it should be discussed. However, he was arrested for not teaching the Bible’s creation. The result was the “Monkey Trial.” Scopes was found guilty and fined $100.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln, in a failed attempt to keep Tennessee in the Union, selected Tennessee Sen. Andrew Johnson as his vice presidential candidate.

Tennessee was the last state to secede and join the CSA in the Confederate fight to maintain their social and economic slave based system.

In 1865, Johnson displaced Lincoln. Lincoln’s lenient “with spite to no one” reconstruction plan died with his assassination. Johnson believed American Africans should have no role in post war reconstruction. Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan clashed with the Republican dominated Congress which wanted a different south. Congress over rode Johnson’s veto and enacted the Reconstruction Act of 1867 which established southern military districts and the Freeman Bureau and was designed to elevate the ex slaves to full citizenship.

The 1876 disputed Presidential election between (R) Rutherford B. Hayes and (D) Samuel J. Tilden involved alleged election fraud – duplicate electors – voters violence – and such. Tilden led in both the Popular and Electoral votes however the 20 disputed electoral votes with the Compromise of 1876 were awarded to Hayes after Hayes agreed to withdraw federal troops from three southern military districts.

The decade, 1867-1877, known as the Reconstruction Era had notable achievements though there was wide spread resistance from the dispossessed whites. In 1866 ex Confederate officer, Tennessee native, Nathan Bedford Forrest created the KKK for the purpose “to restore white supremacy.” The Compromise of 1876 opened the floodgates. Within a few election cycles, White Citizens Councils with KKK backing (over 4,000 lynchings) resumed control and America’s version of Apartheid/segregation (Jim Crow laws) was created

This post Civil War segregation period lasted undisturbed for 100 years – until the 1960s protests. This legalized caste system was shameful in many ways, as shameful as slavery itself in some ways and worst in other ways.

In 1968, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., when standing on the Lorraine motel balcony. King was the leader of non-violent civil rights protest. King was not killed for the way he protested but that he protested.

In 1978, a bronze bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest was installed in Tennessee’s capitol building in Nashville. In 2021, the bust was removed and placed in a state museum. Justin Jones advocated the relocation.

Re-creation of the disputed Presidential Election of 1876 was attempted in 2022. It failed.

Our governmental system held. Enough good people did the right thing. New legislation has been enacted to help prevent future attempts to thwart elections results. Insurrectionists are in prison and more trials are ahead.

The GOP’s 2021 insurrection Presidential power grab and Senate Majority Leader McConnell’s 2016 refusal to hold hearings on Obama’s Supreme Court appointee are examples of gross abuse of authority and illegality – all in the name of control and power.

April 6, 2023 was the date the Tennessee House of Representatives Republican majority voted to expel three Democratic Representatives — Gloria Johnson and newly elected Justin Jones and Justin Pearson – for violation of Chamber protocol. All three protested at the same time – in the same place – over the same issue – and the same way. The white Johnson was not ousted. The two blacks, Jones and Pearson, were ousted

“The Tennessee Three” were protesting the legislature’s lack of gun control action following the slaughter of three adult staff members and three nine year old youngsters in a nearby private school. The shooter had seven legally obtained weapons – the weapon of choice was the AR – 15 military style rifle – she had mental troubles.

White, Republican Tennessee legislator Tim Burchett said “evil people will do evil things” – “that’s just the way it will be” – “the guns are already out there, we need our guns to protect our families” – “more laws won’t help.” Jones, Pearson and Johnson and the protesters inside and outside the Chamber think otherwise.

Underpinning Tennessee’s (and America’s) “dark history of racism” is the obsession for control- fear of losing control. There is fear of who they think are behind the changes and there is fear of, and anger toward, people for “not staying in their place.”

“This obsession to control” is beyond competition of working harder and smarter to gain advantage; this is winning by any method. However, it is not those with the most guns or those most violent who will prevail.

Fifty years ago, on March 7, 1965 (Bloody Sunday), segregationist sheriff Jim Clark ordered his troops to charge into the peaceful marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma Alabama. The nationally televised brutal use of power to maintain dominance and prevent change awoke the “good people” to action. It led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Act. Marcher. John Lewis, referred to this protest as doing “good trouble” – along the line of the “Tennessee Three ‘s” protest.

The energy and bodies pressing for change, mainly, are those of our children and grandchildren, the Gen Xers and the Millennials. Their demand for changes in social justice, the environment, personal choices, public safety, etc. grow stronger each year.

Changes are, at times, over whelming and up setting, akin to the “generation gap” of the late 1960s and early 1970s my parents experienced, though today’s changes are coming faster. Everything moved slower back then.

James Earl Ray plead guilty of killing MLK and ended up dying in a maximum security prison. MLK’s legacy includes being the namesake of many streets and highways, having a memorial in Washington, D. C. and a national holiday whereby citizens are encouraged to ponder a better, more just America.

Attempts to rectify our nation’s “original sin” of slavery and its continuation with Jim Crow segregation following the Compromise of 1876 is on going. Federal legislation and court rulings had been supportive until recent rulings from a controversially created, controversial conservative court ruled otherwise.

Evolution is under way. It’s going to be OK. Constitutional law and evidence beats chaos, lies, fears and “alternative truths.”

P.S. Reading or discussing this letter in a Florida public classroom could be a criminal CRT violation a la John Scopes.

Don Scott is a North Warren resident.