OPINION: Jim Crow criminal justice not dead until the underlying spirit is dead
The darker side of American history, indeed the darker side of African American history, is the record of terroristic violence based on race. We refer to it as the darker side because it is so shameless and vile, but also because it is seldom discussed, even during Black History Month.
Our focus in February is usually on the achievements and contributions of individuals such as George Washington Carver, Jackie Robinson, and Madame C.J. Walker and on legal and political victories such as the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, and the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Those things were important to know and celebrate for various reasons.
As they were transpiring, however, much of the Black population was being terrorized by racial violence. (That side of the story is not widely discussed.) Between 1865 and 1960, more than 6,000 Black Americans are recorded as having been lynched. Mississippi led the pack with more than 600. These lynchings were often quite public and generally the victims were guilty of no more than not adhering to the Jim Crow policies, practices, and expectations of White Supremacists. The brutalities can be viewed in books such as WITHOUT SANCTUARY by William Allen and read in books such as ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF LYNCHINGS by Ralph Ginzburg. The frequency and cavalier manner in which lynchings took place reflect the expectations and sense of entitlement of White Supremacy and the Jim Crow policies underlying it. Added to the lynchings were the scores of anti-Black race riots in such well-known, but widely separated, places as Wilmington, NC; Tulsa; New Orleans; Rosewood, Florida; East St. Louis; Chicago; Elaine, Arkansas; Detroit; and Carrollton, MS. Then there are the racially motivated murder victims that are not even listed among the lynchings in the state’s museum. Among them being, Mack Charles Parker, Rev. George Lee, and Medgar Evers.
The numbers were so staggering they led Ida B. Wells to mount a campaign to make lynching a federal crime, since Jim Crow states nodded approval of them. The murders prompted W.E.B. Du Bois to file a petition with the United Nations charging America with genocide against African Americans. They prompted the Civil Rights Congress to publish the book WE CHARGE GENOCIDE.
In more recent times, there have been the police attacks on several Black colleges – Southern University, Jackson State, Texas Southern, and South Carolina State. There have been the killings of George Floyd, Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray, and others too numerous to include here. These recent killings may be different in tactics. At the same time, they reflect the denial of equal justice for Black people and the continued destruction of Black lives.
It is for those reasons we raise the question of the death of Jim Crow criminal justice. The Trump administration appears willing to allow free reign for such conduct. U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde Smith said she would be willing to attend a public lynching. Even the FBI has listed racial hatred as the number one threat to domestic tranquility. We can see the spirit which gave birth to the lynchings, race riots, and other such forms is alive and well. (Since the 1960s laws have just been in place to restrain the behavior. The respite may come to an end at any time.)
Citizens must be willing to call out White Supremacy, white privilege, and sentiments of entitlement at every opportunity. In the heyday of the Black Power Movement, this was called “pulling the covers off.” Citizens must be willing to organize politically to make defenders of racism powerless to carry out their agenda. They must be willing to unite and protest to kill the spirit of privilege, entitlement, and supremacy.
All the while, individuals, families, and groups must be willing to protect themselves against racial violence. That can on the one hand help reduce the post traumatic slave syndrome, identified by Dr. Joy DeGruy. On the other hand, realizing that Black people will protect themselves may dissuade many white would-be aggressors. Dr. Akinyele Umoja, in WE WILL SHOOT BACK, discusses how communities like Mileston and Harmony made it known they were armed for self-defense and more than a few civil rights leaders traveled with protectors “riding shotgun.”
In short, African Americans must be willing to engage in a number of tactics in order to kill the spirit of White Supremacy and help cure many white citizens of their contagious mental illness called racism. Otherwise, we will be headed back to attempts at open Jim Crow criminal justice and the probable uprising of many of its victims. America can become a beacon of democracy and humanitarianism, but it must turn that critical corner.
