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It boils down to that is what the rich and those in power told them to. Before the Civil War African-americans were depicted as sub human. After the rich told poor people that the "lazy blacks were coming for the land and jobs." And that rhetoric still exists today.

Well, they probably didn't is the answer.

The problem is fear and distrust. A significant part of the economy functioned through the use of slaves. If you are used to treating something as property and that thing is essential for your wellbeing, it is hard to now rethink this attitude.

In any society, the idea of comparison and threats are the worst in the poorer parts of the community. It is easy to think of every situation as a win-lose proposition - someone else's gain is your loss and vice versa. If you're starving, having someone else compete with you for food can generate existential fear.

I have heard that they were afraid they themselves would be made slaves. Also a lot of rich southerners lost all their free labor and if you get between somebody and their money they will do and say terrible things to keep it

From the end of the Civil War through World War 2, poor white Southerners suffered almost as badly as black Southerners. Most suffered silently, but some became violent, and blacks were convenient and vulnerable targets.

Because blacks were not allowed to vote, and juries were selected from registered voters, all jurors were white. And no white jury would convict a white man of violent crimes against blacks.

So if you wanted to commit violence, you could do so against blacks without consequences. Maybe violent poor whites were really mad — or just as mad — at rich whites. But rich whites were protected by the law.

This violence served the rich whites, because it gave the anger of poor whites a different target while terrorizing poor blacks. So they did little to discourage it, and often encouraged it.