Kidada E. Williams discusses her book, I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction. Professor Williams begins by describing how she elevated and amplified the voices of the survivors of Klu Klux Klan terrorism. Mining Congressional Investigation reports and the Works Progress Administration interviews, the survivors recount the continued terrorism of ex-Confederates and other Southern whites intent upon destroying Freed People’s success. Professor Williams explains how these stories document how the Conferderacy continued it’s war on the American Union and Federalism by targeting Freed People’s homes and families – the location of Amercian Democracy. If these testimonies were heeded they could have exposed the Lost Cause narrative as a deadly lie and possibly changed the course of Jim Crow America.
Kidada E. Williams is a Professor of History at Wayne State University where she researches African Americans’ experiences of racist violence.