2023, Trevon Logan, "Whitelashing: Black Politicians, Taxes, and Violence"

In recognition of Black History Month, Research Associate Trevon Logan of The Ohio State University, who directs the NBER's working group on Race and Stratification in the Economy, reviews his research (NBER Working Paper 26014) on the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War. He finds that in many former slave-holding areas, newly enfranchised Blacks elected leaders who raised taxes to finance accessible public schools and break up unproductive plantations. Many of these leaders became targets of violence by Whites. Violent outbreaks were associated with a reversal of the reform policies and a return to pre-war economic structures.