The Second

April 1, 2021
The author of White Rage (2016) returns with a powerful consideration of the Second Amendment as a deliberately constructed instrument of White supremacy. "The Second is lethal," writes Emory historian Anderson: "steeped in anti-Blackness, it is the loaded weapon laying around just waiting for the hand of some authority to put it to use." In 1906 in Atlanta, where Emory is located, one such use was made when a White mob attacked Black businesses and neighborhoods in a kind of mass lynching. "Let's kill all the Negroes so our women will be safe," yelled one instigator. When armed Black citizens responded, the Georgia government immediately sent in the cavalry, not to protect the neighborhoods but to suppress what was tantamount to a modern slave revolt. And it was precisely to suppress revolts, Anderson argues, that the "well-regulated militia" language of the Second was formulated. Militias and slave patrols were one and the same in several Southern colonies and then states, and only Whites could enlist, meaning that only Whites were legally allowed to carry firearms. Indeed, as Anderson carefully documents, many states specifically forbade Blacks from owning or carrying firearms, even after emancipation. Many leaders in the Southern states were fearful because of the success of the Haitian revolution, which, though inspired by both the French and American revolutions, also extended suffrage and political power to free Blacks. The Second Amendment, writes the author, helped reinforce the Constitution's "three-fifths" clause, a means of disempowering Blacks politically forevermore. Today, the racial component of the Second is starkly revealed in police shootings and the National Rifle Association's reticence to defend Black gun owners and police victims even while leaping to the defense of 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, whose attorneys tellingly claimed that he was a member of a "well-regulated militia." Writing evenhandedly and with abundant examples, Anderson makes a thoroughly convincing case. An urgent, novel interpretation of a foundational freedom that, the author makes clear, is a freedom only for some.

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April 12, 2021
Emory University history Anderson (White Rage) takes an illuminating look at how U.S. laws and customs around gun ownership have been used to subjugate Black Americans. Arguing that the primary function of the "militias" mentioned in the Second Amendment was "controlling the Black population" in the South, Anderson compares 18th-century insurrections such as the Whiskey Rebellion, which was led by white agitators who largely escaped punishment, to contemporaneous slave uprisings, in which dozens of perpetrators were executed upon capture. She also details the harsh consequences faced by Black citizens who took up arms to protect themselves from lynch mobs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and discusses California's 1967 Mulford Act, which was designed (with the support of the NRA) to prevent the Black Panthers from carrying weapons while patrolling Black communities. The well-informed historical discussions provide essential context for recent events, including the 2016 deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, two Black men in possession of guns at the time they were killed by police. This is a persuasive and eye-opening look at the intersection of gun rights and racial injustice in America.

Starred review from May 1, 2021

In this latest work, Anderson (White Rage) argues that the rights afforded under the Second Amendment represent a double standard and have never fully applied to Black Americans. She traces the origins of the right to firearms ownership to pre-Revolutionary War militias, which were formed to control enslaved people and uphold white supremacy. The author explains that during the Constitutional Convention, a deal was reached to enshrine both gun rights and white supremacy, in order to ratify the Constitution at the expense of Black people; nevertheless, slaveholders feared uprisings by enslaved people, and sought to curtail the ability of Black people to legally obtain firearms. This fear persisted after the end of slavery, which led to a series of restrictive laws. Anderson follows gun rights and restrictions throughout U.S. history, addressing Black codes, the Black Panthers, and the Southern Strategy, among others. Finally, she argues that recent police killings of Black men demonstrate that open carry, stand-your ground, and castle doctrine laws are cast aside when Black people are involved. VERDICT An important but too-compact analysis that might leave readers wishing for more. Like Anderson's previous works, this is essential for everyone interested in U.S. history.--Rebekah Kati, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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