This quote absolutely brings home the point. I completely agree here about the aspect of creating a mythology. Hannah-Jones is merely stating the obvious: the story of victory is told be the winners—the white party. American went to war “Officially” segregated, n two. Physical worlds, thanks to the Plessy decision of 1896. The federal government not only allowed for segregation, an inherently bigoted and anti-democratic reality, it promoted it by making the federal workforce under President Wilson segregated. Of course two-thirds of whites believed schools should be segregated at the end of the war, since they had been segregated for 50 years under federal government policy. Separation from blacks was all most people ever knew.

Thus, we have to blame the federal government that continued this atrocious anti-democratic policy for a whole nation to live under, from the Midwest corn farmer, to the New England cheese maker, to the Seattle fisherman of the forties. It was only the 1954 decision of Brown v. Board of education that end an inherently anti-democratic policy. The Greatest Generation is white perspective, but is an anti-democratic myth built on a nation where whites had physically banished blacks by way of federal law. It was an era against the American ideal of liberty and just for all, not for it. It was a generation that continued to deny the black the right to vote, the fundamental assertion of a democratic society, not end that suppression of political voice.

Thanks much for your continued clarity and contribution.