DDR: Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power by Jefferson Cowie

 

xii + 497 = 509 pages

I'm not 100% sure that this is my next DDR, but just in case I started reading the end notes as I went along. Don't eant to get stuck the way I did with TIE. 

Day 1 (DDRD 3,099) April 26, 2026

Read to page 20.

An American definition of freedom: the right to inflict tyranny on others.

Yep.

Day 2 (DDRD 3,100) April 27, 2026

Read to page 60. Interesting, sure, but it hasn't caught me up yet.

Day 4 (DDRD 3,101) April 28, 2026

Read to page 90.

Day 5 (DDRD 3,102) April 29, 2026

Read to page 120.

Day 6 (DDRD 3,103) April 30, 2026

Read to page 150. I think it's always a bad sign when I read 30 pages of a book and am not compelled to copy down a line or three. Well, I've read 130 pages of this book with no nudges. It's not that it isn't interesting—it is. But it's not compelling, and I'm beginning to think it's not well written. Hmmm.

424 - 150 = 274 text pages to go. That's 9 more days. Is it worth it? 🤔 

Day 7 (DDRD 3,104) May 1, 2026

Read to page 180.

And now, this:

"From 1872 on, the struggle to regain freedom from federal incursion and Black political power would be a much more raw, naked appeal to local self-rule and white supremacy. Compromise and formal politics were over. In the future, they would take up arms against democracy in the name of their own freedom." (151)

Day 8 (DDRD 3,105) May 2, 2026

Read to page 210.

This

has come up in the Notes a few times now. I thought I had read it, but when I checked it looks like I watched a documentary based on the book and had not actually read the book itself. I'm thinking about putting it on the to be read list, but I really want to read some Jesus stuff next, so....

President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dine with him at the White House. In response, South Carolina Governor Benjamin Tillman said, "...we shall have to kill a thousand niggers to get them back to their place." (205)

Day 9 (DDRD 3,106) May 3, 2026

Read to page 250.

Welcome to the Terrordome:

And here's a quote from Richard Wright's Black Boy:

"The things that influenced my conduct as a Negro did not have to happen to me directly; I needed but to hear of them to feel their full effects in the deepest layers of my consciousness. As long as it remained something terrible and yet remote, something whose horror and blood might descend upon me at any moment, I was compelled to give my entire imagination over to it, an act which blocked the springs of thought and feeling in me, creating a sense of distance between me and the world in which I lived." (233)

Day 10 (DDRD 3,107) May 4, 2026

Read to 280.

"For many white Southerners, this was a fight against domestic totalitarianism, in which tyrannical federal powers would dictate how inferior races would be handled. If the New Deal was really the new tyranny of state socialism, then, as many claimed in the confused hothouse of wartime letters and speeches, the FEPC was the Gestapo. In short, this was a war for white freedom." (276)

Day 11 (DDRD 3,108) May 5, 2026

Read to page 320.

Southern politicians like George Wallace, who is the focus of the part I'm reading now, often portrayed the federal government as The Enemy. According to  Cowie this allowed them to pursue racist rule under the cover of opposing federal intrusion into state affairs. And that was Trump's schtick, too. It's amazing how racism has been such a huge factor in American history for the past 200 years or so. I don't get it.

Speaking of which...here's another book that's been referred to frequently which looks interesting:

And it's available at https://archive.org/details/politicsofragege00cart, which makes it even more tempting. But I am feeling anxious about getting back to religious readings, so we'll have to see what happens.

"By generating often artificial conflict with federal authority, Wallace created a system that generated votes. By losing to the feds, he won local politics." Then there's a note which includes "...it has not mattered to most Alabamians that in his series of confrontations with the federal government Wallace had met with consistent failure. What matters is that he fought, and continues to fight." It seems to me that again this is a big part of Trump's playbook. Attempting to prosecute James Comey for posting a picture of seashells is a fight Trump can't win, but bringing the fight is its own victory.

Btw...my interest in this book has picked up considerably, and I'm glad that I didn't tap out on it.

Sidenote: I just read the Preface (15 pages) of The Politics of Rage. Pretty interesting.

Day 12 (DDRD 3,109) May 6, 2026

Read to page 350. Leaving a mere 72 pages. And I'm going to read another dozen pages today to chop that down to 60 pages, which means Two More Days. 

"...by wrapping racism into questions of federal power, and then making both race and federal intervention into an assault on American freedom, Wallace had himself a winning formula and a growing national audience." (333)

Once again, it is impossible not to see Donald Trump following this same route.

Meanwhile, on TV at 3:29 am:

Have we really made so little progress in 62 years? 

😔 

Here's something worth ten minutes of your time: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kzGEedy9GSs&si=UjMnGsa-KxWqkiQ5

And the solution to racist voter suppression?

"By November 1965, Black Belt counties with federal registrars had 84 percent of the 'Negro Voting Age Population' registered. The corresponding figure for counties without federal oversight was 41 percent." (363) And that, of course, is reversed in the racist's mind: the Federal government is inserting itself into local matters, subverting the will of the people. Thus the federal government is the enemy.

Bada bing bada bay.

P.S. Read to page 365. Also read to page 30 in The Politics ofcalling.It makes the "mistake" that most biographies I have read make it: begins far too early and goes into way too much detail about George Wallace's family. I wish they would just put all that into a paragraph and get on with the real business. I'm still entertaining the idea of reading this book next...but I do hear Jesus calling.

P.P.S. So let me get this straight: in 1966, the symbol for the Democratic Party was a rooster with the slogan, "White Supremacy, For the Right"??? 1966...when I was 9 years old????

P.P.P.S. Read to page 384.Tomorrow should be it.

Day 13 (DDRD 3,110) May 7, 2026

Read to page 497, The End. And I'm glad that I stuck with it. This was an enlightening, frightening, and strangely topical book. Highly recommended.

Wallace's presidential campaign of 1968 is described as "a political revival...for people who want to save their country." (399) Again...sound familiar?

And here it is:

Sad, sad,sad.