Reconstruction Memphis

“Plans Dat Comed From God: Institution Building And The Emergence Of Black Leadership In Reconstruction Memphis” explores, celebrates, and questions the livelihood and sustainability of blacks during Reconstruction in Memphis, TN.  The essay evokes distinctions and conflicts of social class-- Upper-class and entrepreneurial blacks who owned land, working class (the majority of blacks), unemployed blacks (unable to find work or simply indolent), religious leaders, community leaders, and political leaders.  The shocking reality of most blacks’ abilities to make honest livings for themselves and their families without reliance on crime and welfare is also a focus of the essay.  The article articulates the vastness of communal support among blacks in the face of trying circumstances that were inevitable during post emancipation (such as an 1866 riot where poor Irish killed fifty four blacks, two whites, and destroyed every black church and school in Memphis as a result of competition for jobs).

Institution building was a large component of black cultural life during this time—particularly church’s and benevolent groups which accounted for seventy percent of the Freedman Bank’s accounts (social, educational, and special interests groups following).  The institutionalization of church’s and benevolent groups played a dynamic role in blacks’ sanity, transition, and well-being--spiritually, psychologically, emotionally, physically, and financially.  Prior work experience cultivated by slavery also made life after the Civil War more bearable for freed blacks who worked in the cotton plantation-dominated economy of Memphis.

The looming question of the essay persistently speculates the source of inspiration and ideas for the successfully executed black leadership, organization, and planning that took place.  Though activists and pioneer institution builders such as Morris Henderson, Africa Bailey, and Tyler effectively led blacks and proved instrumental in solacing the adaptation stage, some historians are not convinced that their achievements were made devoid the lead of some other force.  Two claims professed in the essay are that blacks during Reconstruction received their direction from blacks already freed during the antebellum period while others maintain that blacks replicated white politicians and religious leaders.  There is no formal consensus. 

I propose another case.  Could it not just be that blacks so impressively transitioned from a life of total restraint to freedom because of their own consistent, determined efforts?   Couldn't they have been so disgusted with their situation and excited about the reality of emancipation that they vowed to do whatever it took to make their freedom work?  Was their ability to cope and transition due to procuring the opposite of what they had done for centuries/what had been done to them?  Could their torture during slavery ironically be the catalyst that developed their ability to have such a “glamorous” transition?  It appears that their direction, or the majority of it, came from within.  Where do you perceive their guidance during Reconstruction Memphis to have originated?  God, others, themselves, slavery, something else?  Could it realistically only be one, or is it a combination of sources?  What is the basis of your claim?