alternatehistory.com

In the Selma Massacre planning thread, i remarked that the TL, which is looking like a worst case scenario (or at least nearly so) right away for the '60s is actually a best case scenario for Civil Rights and better race relations if Civil Rights begin decades earlier. I remarked that the President being assassinate by a White Supremacist would probably be a logical starting point, to which someone agreed.

I'm not ready to start it yet, I have no time, though I have an opening post for one based on this man, who OTL assassinated the former Governor of Idaho, going South instead (so pre-1900 and being a drifter falling in with some radicals who would then assassinate Theodore Roosevelt in late 1906.

However, that is only the latest possible option, the others involve Charles Guiteau because, from his Wikipedia article, he seems like he could have cracked and done something like go South and fall in with some Klan members and blow up even President Grant, although with people tired of Reconstruction by the 1870s, it seems like pulling troops out and then having the South pull an insurrection anyway would be the most plausible way to start.

So, vote, please, on what the best possible place for such an assassination to occur would be for something that ultimately does lead to earlier integration in a number of areas (though not necessarily everything till after WW2.)

BTW, note that obviously the POD and the eventual "Big Drastic Thing" would be 2 different things. (I'm really thinking if Guiteau used, he could move somewhere else early enough butterflies save Octavius Catto, providing a Civil Rights leader who can later be assassinated at a different time if need be, though it's mostly the Selma Massacre" type stuff that would happen, but with thigns getting better, too - in toher words, not a long-term dystopia, there would be reforms like trust busting and the Food and Drug Administration and otehr things.)

the "Other" would include that the only real way was to have an Open Thread that maybe started in 1863 or so during the Civil War. or hve it immediately after.
Top