#5SmartReads - September 10, 2020

On the legalization of cannabis in my home state, Sinikiwe Dhliwayo, and on the last contested presidential election

The Last Time a Contested Presidential Election Nearly Tore the Country Apart (New York Magazine)

Do you know about the Wormley Conference?

It is one of the most consequential events in US history, and one I don’t recall learning about in high school or in college.

The conference came at the end of the highly contentious Hayes vs. Tilden presidential election in 1876, where the electoral vote was certified the day before the inauguration.

And in order for Hayes to take office, it effectively ended Reconstruction in the South. 

And in the wise words of Henry Adams:

“The whole South - every state in the South had got into the hands of the very men that held us as slaves.”

The aftermath of this election was anything but peaceful, with the economic enslavement of Black Americans in the South and widespread labor strikes that ended in violence?

Sounds familiar, no?

If we don’t want to repeat the history, we need a landslide victory - especially with the electoral college.

Let’s go to work.