that abolitionists and civil rights activists have steadily educated and persuaded away American racist ideas and policies sounds great. But it has never been the complete story, or even the main story. Politicians passed the civil and voting rights measures in the 1860s and the 1960s primarily out of political and economic self-interest—not an educational or moral awakening.
I'm not sure this is completely true. Some people who voted for passing these laws did so out of economic self interest but many were persuaded in the rightness of the law.
