Black History | Will U.S. Address Legacy of Racial Terrorism?

Posted on February 12, 2015 by SouthernGirl2

Hat tip: LIZA

Will US address racial terrorismA new report has uncovered shocking details about the history of lynchings in the United States and their legacy today. After five years of exhaustive research and interviews with local historians and descendants of lynching victims, the Equal Justice Initiative found white Southerners lynched nearly 4,000 black men, women and children between 1877 and 1950 — a total far higher than previously known. The report details a 1916 attack in which a mob lynched Jeff Brown for accidentally bumping into a white girl as he ran to catch a train. In an example from 1940, a crowd lynched Jesse Thornton for not addressing a white police officer as “mister.” In many cases, the lynchings were attended by the entire white community in an area. We speak with attorney and Equal Justice Initiative founder and director Bryan Stevenson, whose group’s report is “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror.” The EJI is calling for the placement of historical markers at sites where lynchings occurred.

Deeds committed in the name of Christ- President Obama

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
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8 Responses to Black History | Will U.S. Address Legacy of Racial Terrorism?

  1. majiir says:
    February 12, 2015 at 7:56 pm

    The simple answer to the question is no. We’re a nation of cowards when it comes to discussing issues related to race, and we have so many citizens who are not concerned about racism or about taking steps to reduce/eliminate it. For these persons, if it doesn’t have a negative impact on them, it’s not important. Talking about it makes them “uncomfortable,” so they avoid any/all attempts to do do. This makes it extremely unlikely that they’ll address our legacy of racial terrorism.

    Reply
  2. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    February 12, 2015 at 7:53 pm

    A bit of history:
    The Betrayal of the Freedmen? Rutherford B. Hayes and the End of Reconstruction?”
    http://www.rbhayes.org/hayes/scholarworks/display.asp?id=503

    Excerpt:

    “Hideous things happened in the decades after the Civil War. Freed slaves who tried to vote were beaten, jailed, lynched. Jim Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan stopped thousands from registering.” That is how Associated Press reporter Katherine Rizzo opened a recent column about Rutherford B. Hayes and the abortive efforts by the Hayes Presidential Library to secure federal funding. Taking her cue from the opposition of a St. Louis Congressman (Democrat William Clay), Rizzo told the familiar story of Hayes election and its massive negative impact on the results of Reconstruction. According to her, Clay said: “I’m not saying this guy was totally bad. I’m saying what he did was incredibly obnoxious and corrupt.” Rizzo reported that Clay believed that “a deal cut in 1877 to give Hayes the presidency ‘had a devastating effect on black Americans.'”

    Rizzo summarized the story as follows:

    Hayes, a Republican, lost the popular vote in 1876 but assumed the presidency after considerable controversy and negotiation. The Electoral College gave him a one-vote edge over his Democratic opponent, but Democrats challenged the decision on grounds that some states submitted two sets of returns.

    Facing the possibility the country would be left without a president, both parties considered taking the office by force.

    But in the end, the Republicans struck a secret deal with Southern Democrats in Congress, who agreed not to dispute the Hayes victory in exchange for a promise to end Reconstruction and withdraw federal troops from the South.

    Hayes made good on the deal. He swiftly ended Reconstruction and pulled federal troops out of the last two occupied states, South Carolina and Louisiana.

    “Instead of withdrawing, he should have sent additional troops out there,” Clay said. “An 1871 report to Congress says that in nine counties in South Carolina, there were 35 lynchings, 262 black men and women were severely beaten, and over 100 homes were burned. The Ku Klux Klan was already riding roughshod.”

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  3. Ametia says:
    February 12, 2015 at 7:29 pm

    SG2, Once again, you have posted GOLD. Thank you Liza , for the hat tip.

    Reply
  4. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    February 12, 2015 at 5:16 pm

    From the video interview that you posted….

    Brian Stevenson:

    “We have never really talked about all of this destructive violence. I mean, these public spectacle lynchings that we documented in our report are horrific.

    “Ten thousand people showed up in Paris, TX in a carnival-like atmosphere to watch a man be tortured. Some of these executions, we have one in Dyesburg,TN where the man had his eyes gauged out; he was burned; he was mutilated; and thousands of people witnessed this. And, it does speak to a very dark era in our history

    “And, we make a mistake in this country when we do not talk honestly and soberly about these experiences. The whole North and West is populated with African Americans who fled to Detroit and Chicago and Cleveland and Los Angeles, not as people looking for opportunities, but as refugees from terror.

    “And this narrative of racial difference which was born in this era has created a presumption of guilt and dangerousness that too many young people of color are burdened with is something that we haven’t adequately addressed because we haven’t talked about these issues.

    “And, so I think the President is quite right to remind us of this history.

    “We didn’t have truth and reconciliation in this country, and because of it, I think we remain haunted, even contaminated, by the disarray and disruption that these acts of violence have created in our national psyche but also in our relations with one another.”

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  5. Liza says:
    February 12, 2015 at 3:04 pm

    Thanks for posting this, SG2. Bryan Stevenson is a brilliant man and a tireless activist. I am in total agreement with him about the need for markers that identify the persons lynched. Anything that helps people to learn history (and not the revisionist versions) is sorely needed.

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