Dedication to Modern Day Lynching Victims:
Modern Day Lynchings:
Today we are going to discuss lynching. Lynching is a topic that is challenging to talk about. The death of Black people who did not have the ability to have equal protection of the law, which the fourteenth amendment guaranteed. Lynching is a depressing topic when it pertains to Black History. Past and present, lynching is still important to learn about because it is still happening. It will be difficult to discuss some of these lynchings, but we must learn about them. Not to desensitize us of the violence of Black people, but to help others understand where the tradition of lynching comes from and to put an end to it. I understand if some do not want to hear about this considering the horrible things that lynched Black men, women and children had done to them, it is disturbing. You will hear a few stories about Black lynchings; some that you may have heard of due to the media getting involved in the story and some that you do not know about. Age has nothing to do with the victims of lynching. Any Black person could and can be lynched. So, here is your trigger warning. What you will read today will be horrible. It is disturbing and violent. Viewer discretion is advised.
Before Lynching Became a Problem:
Lynching. What is it? To explain what lynching is, you have to go back to the Amendments to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The fifth amendment to the United States Constitution states that, "no one shall be "deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law." This amendment is where "Miranda Rights" comes from as well. This amendment did not include Black people because at the time, they were forced into involuntary servitude, or slavery as most call it. Once slavery ended through the Thirteenth Amendment, there was still the issue of former enslaved Blacks in our country. The government did not know whether to make them citizens or send them back to Africa. This is where the Fourteenth Amendment becomes so crucial to learn. Section one of the Fourteenth Amendment states, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the
State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws". Now at this time, former Confederate soldiers and politicians were coming back from the war and felt shame and anger that their side lost the war. They were also angry that they were losing what they considered to be "property" with losing their slaves. Not only were former enslaved Americans now freed, but they were holding government offices, Black men were voting and holding jobs that White men normally had. This angered White people in the South and also upset Northerners as well. Reconstruction officially ended in 1877 with the election of Rutherford B Hayes. Now his election was controversial to say the least, but there was an agreement called the Compromise of 1877 which says that President Hayes wins the election under specific stipulations. One of those stipulations being that the Federal troops that were protecting former enslaved Blacks in the South had to be removed. This is considered the beginning of racial terror in America and this is how lynching would play a part in the racial terror.
Lynching is the public execution of an individual who has not had their day in court. If someone has been accused of a crime, then a crowd between just a few people to hundreds of people can participate in a lynching. There are many forms of lynchings and that is an important to clarify. Lynching can vary from hanging someone from a tree, burning their bodies, shooting them, suffocating them, stabbing them, or any other source of killing of a person who has not been through their due process. Between 1882 and 1968, there were almost four thousand documented cases of African American lynchings in America. I am not saying that there were not White people being lynched as well, but most likely, they were being lynched along side with Black people for supporting their causes. Also, throughout the years, White lynchings declined significantly while Black lynchings skyrocketed. I will tell one story of a lynching from that time because I want to focus on the lynchings that are happening today, but it is important to tell stories from the past because it can be used as inspiration for others to do these things to Black people, and that must be stopped.
On July 11th, a Black man by the name of Robert Malcom was arrested, accused of stabbing a White farmer. On July 25th, his brother in law, his sister, his wife and his boss, J Loy Harrison went to bail him out of jail. On the way home from the jail, thirty White men stopped the car and took Robert and his brother in law, George Dorsey out and began beating them. Malcom’s wife pleaded with the crowd by names to let her husband go but it made the situation worse. The crowd would grab Malcom’s pregnant wife and his sister and shoot them 60 times at close range. July 25th 1946, a mob lynched technically five Black people. Two men, two women and an unborn baby. Malcom had no due process and the only crimes of the others who were lynched was knowing the victim. This lynching hits close to home considering that I share a last name with one of the victims. (No relation that I know of) but it still inconceivable as to how 30 people have gotten away with this lynching crime.
That was an old story, 1946. This lynching was considered, “the last mass lynching”. Lynchings don’t happen anymore right? If that were the case, you would not be hearing about this. We will discuss a few that have happened in the year of 2020. The year of George Floyd and Ahmad Aubrey and I’m not even going to talk further about them. Yes. Lynchings happened in the year 2020. Two Black men were found hanging in different places in California. Robert Fuller was hung from a tree in Pamdale California. Did the police consider them lynchings? No. They said they both committed suicide. Same consensus with the hangings of men in Houston, Texas, Manhattan New York and a teenage Black boy in Spring, Texas. All ruled suicides. Young Black men are not the only victims of lynching in America today. Black women are also found lynched, hanging from trees. A 72 year old woman was found hanging from a tree a few weeks ago in Maryland. Also, a sixteen year old girl was found hanging from a tree back in May. Mikayla Miller was found hanging from a tree in Boston. How is that even possible that these Black and brown Americans went outside to random places and hung themselves from a tree? How are the police able to say it was a suicide without looking at the facts? Now there is a man who lives in Indiana who survived an attempted lynching but now he’s being sued for causing said attempted lynching to occur. How outrageous is that? Luckily, some of these cases were reopened but how long will it take for them to find the killers? Will they ever find the killers? How many Black and Brown bodies have to die before the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Bill is passed?
What is the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching bill? To discuss the Emmett Till bill, we have to look at Ida B Wells. Ida B Wells was born into slavery and she looked to get a bill passed making it illegal to lynch people. Wells wrote to President after President to try and get it into Congress. Her efforts, though failed, shined light on the issues of lynching. In 1918, there was an Anti-Lynching bill that was introduced to Congress by Leonidas Dyer. The revised bill that Dyer introduced was passed by the House of Representatives, but because of Southern Democrats' Filibuster, it was not passed in the Senate. In the year of 2021, we are still waiting for an Anti-Lynching Bill to pass the Senate which is the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching bill. Specifically, the Emmett Till Lynching Bill state, "To heal past and present racial injustice, Congress must make lynching a Federal crime so our Nation can begin reconciliation." The lack of care from our senators is despicable. Black Americans should be able to feel safe in their country but the Government continues to let them down by not passing the legislation necessary to keep them safe.
Billie Holiday’s song Strange Fruit was inspired by a poem written by Abel Meeropol who saw a photo of a lynching and was haunted by it. Strange Fruit is considered to be the song of the century due to the realness of the song. The pain that you hear when Billie Holiday sings the song echos the pain that African Americans feel when we discuss the Black American experience. "Southern trees, bear a strange fruit. Blood on the leaves and blood at the roots. Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees" The beginning of the song is chilling. Holiday sings of "bulging eyes and twisted mouths" of the murdered victims. The song puts you right in front of a tree with a Black person's corpse staring you in the face. This song came out in the 1930s. It is still relevant to 2021. How broken is that? There will be another blog about lynching where we go more in depth about stories of historical lynchings and we will also explore more modern lynchings as they are discovered. Almost 4000 Black people were lynched from 1888 to 1968; and those are the ones that we know about. Such a crime that nothing is still being done to rectify the situation. Empty apologies and no legislative action. Call your state's representative if you want the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Bill to become law before it is lost in the Senate. As Moorfield Storey says it, "For Heaven's sake, do not tell the negroes that their case is hopeless,
that this great country cannot protect them from absolute wanton murder
with the connivance and with the assistance of the officers appointed by
law to defend them, and with absolute indifference on the part of the
United States."
Sources:
Comments
Post a Comment