In honor of Emory University’s King Week and National Racial Healing Day, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies Carol Anderson led a discussion about her documentary “I, Too,” on Jan. 17 at Harland Cinema in the Alumni Memorial University Center.
Interim Dean of Emory College of Arts and Sciences Carla Freeman introduced Anderson as one of the most renowned scholars of African American history in the United States. Anderson is known for her award-winning books that address how racial inequality affects the creation of U.S. policy.
“I, Too” premiered on Sept. 8, 2022. The film argues that the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection was not an isolated event, but rather a continuation of white supremacist violence that has plagued the nation’s history
The documentary touches on efforts to disenfranchise the Black vote, including the Wilmington, N.C. insurrection of 1898, during which white supremacists conducted the only successful coup in U.S. history against Black elected officials and the 1920 Ocoee, Fla. massacre when a mob of white people murdered leading members of the Black community.
The film shows that these events did not occur in isolation and that white supremacy was a pattern throughout the past two centuries that continues today, as depicted in its correlation to the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
After the film screening, Anderson led the discussion with WABE radio host and journalist Rose Scott. Anderson mentioned how the U.S. is in a critical moment in deciding the fate of democracy.
“Right now we are in a battle for democracy, because we have massive competing visions,” Anderson said. “There is one vision that believes that democracy is vital. It is multiracial, multiethnic, multilingual, multicultural. And that there is enough for all of us.”
Anderson further argued that the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection was a direct response to Black political power in the United States.
“It was in response to a different vision of what democracy could be … when you really listen to what they were saying, when you hear new keywords say they stole the election in Atlanta, they stole the election in Detroit, they stole it in Philadelphia,” Anderson said. “Those are cities with sizable Black populations.”
Additionally, Anderson emphasized that soldiers constructed Confederate memorials and monuments as a way to remind people of their bygone beliefs.
Anderson added that white supremacy continues to threaten democracy.
“What we're looking at is a consistent pattern of killing Black folk without consequence, and that killing erodes democracy,” Anderson said.
