Senator Tom Cotton: Son of the Confederacy
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) has stirred up controversy recently with a New York Times op-ed calling for federal troops to invade American cities as a response to civil rights uprisings as well as introducing a bill to ban federal funding of the Pulitzer prize winning 1619 project. When I read that Senator Cotton was prioritizing defunding teaching of slavery in our schools while a pandemic continued to claim over a hundred thousand lives in the United States alone, I wondered: Why? Why would he target the 1619 project while tens of millions of Americans lost their jobs as well as their health insurance, while civil rights protests were ongoing, and while the uncertainty of the future of this country was so overwhelming? The answer turned out to be very simple: Tom Cotton is a son of the confederacy.
Thomas Cotton’s great great grandfather Leonard Ryan Cotton (spelled Ryon in the Kentucky archives) born in Simpson, Kentucky in 1843 was a confederate soldier. The Cotton family was moved to Arkansas by Leonard Ryan’s father, slaveowner Jesse Hackney Cotton some time around 1861. In 1915, 105 years ago, Leonard Ryan Cotton applied for a confederate pension through the state of Arkansas‘ Act 91 which passed in 1891 making confederate pensions available to veterans and their widows.
With a family history deeply rooted in slavery and confederate values, it only makes sense that Senator Cotton would resist the teaching of slavery in our schools. Senator Cotton does not want the truth to be told about the gruesome genocidal crimes of slavery, because his ancestors are directly implicated in this truth. In such unprecedented times that call for politicians to rise to the occasion and answer the problems of today with legislation and leadership, Senator Cotton prioritizes hiding the history of slavery. Erasure of the history of slavery is a tool of white supremacy, it gaslights Black Americans and tells them that the oppression they face is not caused by four centuries of genocide and slavery, but instead their own fault.
Even after finding this information, I returned to the question: Why? Is it because he is ashamed of his family’s dark past and fears their crimes might come to light? Or is it because he wishes to continue wrongfully glorifying the Confederacy along with his Republican colleagues and teaching the full and true history of slavery would tarnish that glory? I just do not know. One thing is for sure, his confederate ancestors would be proud.
