Vincent, a civil rights attorney and professor of educational policy studies and evaluation at the University of Kentucky, said what he witnessed on television a year ago was “beyond the pale” and “criminal.” He compared it to Watergate. If that happens, it will destroy democracy in this country and may even spell the end of the American republic.”ĭr. “I fear that voter suppression laws will lead us into another Jim Crow era. Unfortunately, virtually an entire party is now defending the insurrection and ‘the Big Lie,’” said Sinha. “I was hoping that American citizens and leaders of both parties would condemn the attempted coup. Knowing the past should be a “precondition of good citizenship,” she said. Sinha hopes that higher education professionals have since realized the importance and value of teaching American history and the humanities. We cannot let that happen again,” Sinha said. “We have only now started taking down Confederate statues which are monuments to men who tried to destroy the American republic. After the end of Reconstruction, white supremacists created the “lost cause” myth and rewrote the legacy of the Civil War, turning Confederate soldiers into heroes “rather than traitors who committed treason to uphold slavery,” said Sinha. All elected leaders were expelled from the city, Black properties were destroyed and hundreds of people were murdered. It was easy to connect the dots from January 6 to the only successful government coup on American soil, which happened in 1898 when white supremacist groups violently ousted the democratically elected, biracial government of Wilmington, North Carolina.
“The main takeaway that I tried to convey was how contested and fragile American democracy has been, something that had not occurred to many Americans, including my students.” “Most of my students could draw the parallels between what happened then and now,” said Sinha. Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut and an expert on the Civil War and slavery, taught a seminar on Reconstruction last January. One year later, higher education professionals are still working to silence “the Big Lie” that the election was manipulated in favor of Biden’s victory and stop the rush of violence some believe could happen again.ĭr. While many were surprised and shocked at what they saw, some scholars saw that day as the hallmark of a country grappling with white supremacy, the spread of misinformation and growing partisanship. On January 6, 2021, Americans witnessed a bold attack on their Capitol.