On the morning of July 25th, 1860, one-hundred and fifty years ago to the day, the Fort Worth Whig Chief reported that William Crawford, a white man and abolitionist, was lynched. All day, his killers left him dangling from the pecan tree from which they'd hung him so that Texans could see what men like him had coming. Sure enough, as morning turned to evening, "people thronged to gaze upon an abolitionist."

Tragically, Mr. Crawford wasn't alone. That summer, in Texas and other parts of the South, others got killed too, like an old black preacher and freedom-seeker named Sam Smith and a Methodist minister Anthony Bewley, who got hung from the same pecan tree as Mr. Crawford and then had his grave dug up and his bones displayed out in front of a storehouse.

The scenes of death were part of the hysteria that gripped much of the South during the election of 1860, as their greatest fear came to look more and more likely: a victory for Abraham Lincoln. Those murdered wanted one thing, liberty for all. To get it for others, they lost everything.

Here are some of the cold hard truths that abolitionists at that time knew: slaveholders commonly disallowed slaves from even the most rudimentary forms of education and the life spans of slaves were brutally short compared to other Americans. In addition, abolitionists hated that, because of slavery, in America some people had no say in where they lived, let alone whom they lived with or what they did for a living. Some, like Mr. Crawford and Mr. Smith, hated these things so much they died trying to stop them.

How enlightening it would be, then, if we could go back in time and carry Mr. Crawford and Mr. Smith forward 150 years. Surely they'd marvel at many things, particularly the fact that America now has a black president.

Unfortunately, though, they'd also probably be rather chagrined to see that this summer the post-racial era that so many hoped for has devolved into a bunch of racial "controversies," all of which these mid-19th century men would probably not recognize as very controversial.

In the sports world, the latest racially-charged salvo came from the decorated journalist Jason Whitlock, who, in an op-ed about the current flap over Reggie Bush's Heisman Trophy, compared the structure of the NCAA to slavery.

In the article, which would be laughable if it weren't so sadly off-base, Mr. Whitlock declared, "Reggie Bush is Kunta Kinte, a runaway slave." Seriously? The same Reggie Bush who is slated to make about $8 million this season, who recently won a Super Bowl, and who buys multi-million-dollar property? If so, I'm sure Kunta Kinte could relate, as well as Mr. Crawford and Mr. Smith.

Mr. Whitlock also said, "At some point, we can recognize that an investigative journalism award and individual career advancement do not justify pretending there is some honor in safeguarding the NCAA's plantation. ... Call me when the phony moralizing stops and we, the media, quit demonizing black kids for cashing in like white men." Ahh, race-baiting at its best. Bravo, Mr. Whitlock.

For clarity's sake, my point isn't to extol the NCAA model. In my humble view, it has some wonderful elements to go along with numerous flaws. But that's not the point. The point is that nothing about the NCAA model even remotely approaches slavery.

So, to race-baiters on both sides of the political ledger: stop the nonsense. By comparing such things to slavery, you discredit those who actually suffered through and fought against slavery more than a century ago, as well as those who suffer from and fight against real slavery in 2010, particularly in a country like Sudan.

Reggie Bush has always had the freedom to choose where he works and lives. He chose to participate in the NCAA. Don't compare it to slavery. I don't think Mr. Crawford and Mr. Smith would appreciate it. They got their necks broken because they fought against real slavery. Is the Reggie Bush saga really worth cheapening their legacy, not to mention the legacies of thousands of other abolitionists - some gone, some still with us?