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On this dark day for our republic, a history thread about what I imagine will be one of the iconic photos of the day radical right-wing extremists, emboldened by the President, attacked the Capitol, disrupted the business of our representatives, and caused mayhem 1/
Jarring, of course, is the image of the battle flag of the Confederate States of America, a breakaway nation based on slavery and white supremacy that never conquered our Capitol or Washington D.C., suffering defeat on the battlefield in 1865. 2/
Ignore the face of the protestor for a moment. Who is in the portrait at the center of the image? 3/
It's the great antislavery Senator Charles Sumner, an academic and fiery elected first as a free spoiler. He changed his party affiliation to Republican in the mid-1850s. 4/
In 1856, after concluding a 2-day speech attacking illegal proslavery voters and raiders in Kansas Territory, Sumner was savagely beaten by a South Carolina Congressman on the floor of the Old Senate Chamber. 5/
The "caning" of Sumner by Preston Brooks produced this other iconic image from the U.S. Capitol 6/
Sumner, trapped under his Senate desk bolted to the floor of the chamber, was unable to defend himself against this savage attack by a white supremacist, and he never fully recovered (his writing contained a tremor for the rest of his life). 7/
Preston Brooks was censured by his colleagues in the U.S. House, resigned, and was...promptly reelected by his constituents in South Carolina. He received stacks of letters praising his actions, including gifts of new canes ("hit him again" read a note attached to one). 8/
Brooks, a man of unhealthy habits, died soon after. But not Sumner! He was also reelected by his constituents, returned to the Senate, and became a leader of the Radical Republicans who assailed Lincoln for being too soft on the South and slavery. 9/
During Reconstruction, Sumner fought to provide equal civil and voting rights for freed slaves and block ex-Confederates from power so they would not reverse the gains made from the North's unequivocal victory in the Civil War. 10/
He served honorably until his death in office in 1874. His portrait by Walter Ingalls still hangs in the Senate, and you can still visit the chair in the Old Chamber where he was attacked by a man who held similar values as the protestor today. Fin/
