The legacy of enslavement is a central theme in Gates’s book. Although enslavement legally ended with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865, this did not bring an end to anti-Black racism. Southern Democrats chipped away at Reconstruction gains using the courts and legislatures. For example, United States v. Reese ruled that the 15th Amendment did not guarantee the right to vote; United States v. Harris ruled that the 13th and 14th Amendments applied to the actions of states rather than of individuals; and Plessy v. Ferguson enshrined Jim Crow segregation. As Gates notes, the refusal of the courts to defend Reconstruction policies speaks to the persistence of anti-Black racism after the end of enslavement:

Reconstruction revealed a fact that had been true but not always acknowledged even before the Civil War: that it was entirely possible for many in the country, even some abolitionists, to detest slavery to the extent that they would be willing to die for its abolition, yet at the same time to detest the enslaved and the formerly enslaved with equal passion (11).

Gates argues that enslavement and its underpinning ideology, white supremacy, did not end in 1865, but simply evolved.