MSNBC Guest: There’s a ‘Perfect Parallel’ Between Jim Crow and Trump’s Presidency

EXCERPT:

LEMIRE: "I was just going to bring up that moment, it's what parallels do you see to today’s climate where we’re seeing acts of white nationalism, white supremacy, violence? Those numbers are rising according to statistics. What roles did the election of Barack Obama play to this? And then now, is President Trump stoking those fears and that violence?" 
GATES: "It’s the perfect parallel. The reason that Dylan McGee and I decided to do this series now was because eight years of black freedom, as it were under Barack Obama, basically drove a lot of people crazy. We saw this rise of white supremacy that I don’t know about you but I thought had been long buried. This is like a bad Dracula movie. You thought, 'Damn, aren’t you dead? Didn’t we put a stake in your heart?' And then it comes back. So the closest historical parallel to what we’re seeing today with the rise of white supremacy is a backlash to the Obama Administration is the collapse of reconstruction. That’s why I wrote the book and why we did this series. "