As the saying goes, not only is the past not dead, it isn’t even past. That is certainly true of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
There would be no reason to talk about reparations today if the cotton plantations had been broken up, and the land redistributed to the freed slaves. There was a strong moral case for doing that, and it had some support from Radical Republicans. It didn’t happen, however. Why?
Three reasons. Racism was part of the equation, but I doubt it was the biggest part. Respect for constitutionally protected property rights, and fear of a slippery slope, was a factor. The biggest problem, however, was war weariness. There would have been no way to enforce the redistribution without maintaining a massive military presence in the South for an indefinite period of time. Given the costs of the war, and its apparent success, was it really likely that the taxpayers of the North were going to agree to that? Obviously not; they wanted to bring the boys home and get back to normal as quickly as possible. Can you blame them?
And yet, things might be so much better today if they had stayed the course. Pay me now, or pay me later . . .