Confederate Albert Pike’s Return is a Warning to Black America – The Black Wall Street Times

The Black Wall Street Times
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It’s not lost on me that a man who fought to keep my ancestors enslaved once stood in stone near Congress. Albert Pike, a Confederate general, white supremacist, and ideological architect of racial exclusion in Freemasonry, stood in statue form in Washington, D.C., for over a century.
In 2020, protesters tore down the statue during the George Floyd uprisings. But this reckoning went far beyond one man’s murder. It marked a collective awakening to centuries of systemic racism, chattel slavery, and the whitewashing of American history.
Now, we face a chilling truth: the past isn’t just being remembered—it’s being resurrected.
Under Donald Trump’s executive order—ironically titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”—the National Park Service announced it will reinstall Pike’s statue in the nation’s capital. Pike’s monument joins several other Confederate symbols being revived under this order. They call it heritage. I call it heresy against democracy.
And it raises a question we can’t ignore: what exactly are these white Republican, far-right Confederate sympathizers planning?
“If it [Ku Klux Klan] were in our power, if it could be effected, we would unite every white man in the South, who is opposed to negro suffrage, into one great Order of Southern Brotherhood, with an organization complete, active, vigorous, in which a few should execute the concentrated will of all, and whose very existence should be concealed from all but its members.”
This quote by Albert Pike isn’t abstract. It’s a blueprint for white supremacist resistance in 2025, and Republicans are following this plan whether they know it or not.
Pike envisioned a secret brotherhood of white Southern men, united to stop Black people from voting. He wanted a hidden group, ruled by a powerful few, to crush Black political power during Reconstruction. That wasn’t just racism—it was strategy.
Confederate generals are being resurrected while Black voters are being erased. Support fearless, unapologetically Black journalism that tells the truth others won’t—become a paid subscriber today.
Today, Trump is reviving that same strategy with new tools and old intentions — starting in the South, but reaching far beyond.
While Confederate statues return to public squares at Trump’s request, his conservative Supreme Court justices are chipping away at the Voting Rights Act of 1965—the very law that gave Black Americans a fighting chance at democracy.
First, they gutted preclearance in Shelby v. Holder. Now, they’re trying to limit who can sue under Section 2. The message is clear: in Trump’s America, Confederate generals get monuments, and Black voters get silence.
But it doesn’t stop there.
Trump has now reached into Texas, where he instructed Republican lawmakers to redraw congressional maps mid-decade. Their goal? “Find” five new Republican seats by cracking majority-Black and Latino districts and diluting our political power.
It’s the same Jim Crow playbook—gerrymandering, voter suppression, and weaponized maps—executed today with legal cover and surgical precision.
Texas Democrats fled the state to stop the vote. Civil rights groups are suing. But the damage has already begun, and Trump-appointed judges are actively refusing to stand with Black America.
Let’s not fool ourselves that the return of Albert Pike’s statue is more than symbolic; it’s part of a calculated, coordinated assault on truth, memory, and multiracial democracy — just like Pike had envisioned for America.
While we fight to protect our right to vote, they’re glorifying the men who fought to keep us enslaved and politically voiceless.
This is why Black journalism matters.
Because we dig deeper than most media outlets will unveil, reclaim the narrative, and expose the systems working overtime to erase us—politically, culturally, and historically. If we don’t rise now, statues may soon stand taller than our rights, dignity, and humanity.
Albert Pike didn’t deserve a statue in the 20th century. He certainly doesn’t deserve one in the 21st century. Remember him for what he truly was: a man who wielded every ounce of his intellect to uphold white supremacy. He is a traitor.
If the government won’t say it, we will.
Confederate statues are rising again—and so is the plan to erase Black political power.
Trump’s allies are gutting the Voting Rights Act, glorifying white supremacists like Albert Pike, and redrawing maps to silence our voices. This isn’t just history repeating—it’s a coordinated assault on multiracial democracy.
We’re not just watching it happen. We’re exposing the truth, reclaiming the narrative, and mobilizing Black communities to resist.
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Join The Black Wall Street Times. Because if they resurrect traitors, we must resurrect the truth.
Nehemiah D. Frank is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Black Wall Street Times and a descendant of two families that survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Although his publication’s store and newsroom… More by Nehemiah Frank

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