Grant’s determination to protect the rights of the freed slaves made him extremely unpopular in the South, and increasingly in the North as well, particularly among Democrats, whose 1868 campaign slogan was “Our Motto: This is a White Man’s Country Let White Men Rule.” This was their guiding principle throughout Grant’s presidency, and when they won control of the House of Representatives in the 1874 midterm elections, the Democrats were able to stymie almost completely Grant’s efforts to protect the civil rights of black Americans.Įven one of his failed initiatives as president shows Grant’s solicitude for black Americans and determination to secure equality of rights for them. When Southern states resisted Reconstruction measures, denied blacks the right to vote, and allowed the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize black populations, Grant sent federal troops to restore order and enforce the law. He declared: “I have no prejudice against sect or race but want each individual to be judged by his own merit.” Just weeks after taking office in 1869, he approved an act stipulating that the word “white” be struck from all requirements to hold office or serve as a juror in the District of Columbia.
It shows that from the very beginning of his presidency, Grant demonstrated a consistent commitment to the equality of rights of all people. Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look At Who Was Best, Who Was Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster is an attempt to aid in that. When our history is being denigrated, attacked, and erased, it is all the more important for each of us to know it. He may have been a onetime slaveholder and a flawed president in many respects, but he did lead the Union Army to victory in the Civil War and in the White House was a forceful advocate for Reconstruction and elimination of the Ku Klux Klan when some of his fellow Republicans were weakening.Grant not only fought against and destroyed the slave power and enacted civil rights laws. The attack on Grant’s statue seemed particularly odd at a time when American society is engaged in a reckoning about race and injustice.
Their presence in Golden Gate Park was a fair subject for public debate. Serra’s 2015 canonization as a saint was controversial because of his treatment of native Californians during the establishment of the missions Key, author of the national anthem, was a slaveholder who as a district attorney tried to silence abolitionists. Students of history know that Grant, Serra and Key were far from perfect. Three years ago it stripped the name of Justin Herman, who oversaw the brutish redevelopment of swaths of the heart of African American culture in the Fillmore and Western Addition in the 1960s two years ago removed the “Early Days” statue at Civic Center Plaza that depicted a Native American gazing up at European colonizers and last week relocated a Christopher Columbus statue at Coit Tower that was being targeted for an attack. The vandalism is especially maddening because San Francisco has been so willing to have robust debates about the propriety of memorials in public places - and to take action when merited.
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