Lynching is very American

 

“All Republicans must remember what they see here is a lynching.” Donald J. Trump

“This is a lynching in every sense. This is un-American.” Senator Lindsey Graham.

“Almost 5,000 lynchings were recorded in the United States between 1882 and 1968. Most of their victims were African-American men.” History.com

“Our country’s national crime is lynching. Lynching is color-line murder.” Ida B. Wells

“It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me.” MLK

There were 115 recorded cases of women lynched between 1851 and 1946; 90 were black.

“On May 19th, 1918 a mob of several hundred brought Mary Turner to Folsom Bridge which separates Brooks and Lowndes counties in Georgia. The mob  tied her ankles, hung her upside down from a tree, doused her in gasoline and motor oil and set her on fire. Turner was still alive when a member of the mob split her abdomen open with a knife and her unborn child fell on the ground. The baby was was stomped  and crushed as it fell to the ground. Turner’s body was riddled with hundreds of bullets.”  – NAACP

HOW TO STOP LYNCHING.

by Josephine St. P. Ruffin [Ruffin, Josephine St. P.] and Florida R. Ridley [Ridley, Florida R.]

Tuesday, May 1, 1894

In his very admirable and searching address delivered in this city, April 16th, judge Albion W. Tourgee proposed as a remedy to prevent the lynching of colored people at the South, that the country where lynchings occur be compelled by law to pension the wife and children of the murdered man. This, he said would make murder costly and in self defense the local authorities would put a stop to it. At first blush, this is an attractive suggestion. But why not hang the murderers? Why make a distinction between the murderers of white men and the murderers of colored men? If the punishment for murder is hanging why hang the murderer in one case and in the other let the murderer go free and exact of the county a fine? If an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is the rule in one case why should it not be the rule in the other case? No, the truth is this, nothing is to be expected from the South. The colored people must look to the general government. It has a right to their services and lives in time of war. They have a right to its protection certainly in time of peace. It is idle to say that it must leave to state governments the protection of the lives of its citizens. Why not leave to state governments the punishment 9of counterfeiters? If the United States government can protect money, the property of its citizens against destruction at the hands of the counterfeiter, it can protect the owners of the property against loss of life at the hands of the murderer. It is an astounding proposition that a great nation is powerful enough to stop white moonshines [sic] from making whiskey but is unable to prevent the moonshiners or any one else from murdering its citizens. It can protect corn but cannot protect life. It can prevent the sale of tobacco unless the seller pays a revenue to the government but it cannot protect its citizens at any price. It can go to war, spend millions of dollars and sacrifice thousands of lives to avenge the death of a naturalized white citizen slain by a foreign government on foreign soil, but cannot spend a cent to protect a loyal, native-born colored American murdered without provocation by native or alien in Alabama. Shame on such a government!

Turns out, Senator Lindsey Graham, you are wrong. Lynching is a very American thing.

Impeachment is following the law. Lynching is breaking the law. Know the difference. Respect it.

 

 

 

 

Karen Spears Zacharias

Author/Journalist/Educator. Gold Star Daughter.

2 Comments

AFRoger

about 4 years ago

We the people have just lynched our former allies, the Kurds, and we champion this backstabbing sacrifice as a great day for civilization. It is as well known by now as the pattern of waves and ocean tides that our president creates chaos and disorder as a distraction from his previously created chaos and disorder. It now plays out far beyond the self-serving fiction of his tweets. It plays out in bloodshed with more surely to come. Since we know nothing of what this man has agreed to and offered to do for Vladimir Putin (and other tyrants), I can't help but suspect that the Kurds were offered up as the door prize for unlimited meddling in the coming campaign and election. I would not be at all surprised to hear the term "holocaust" also expropriated by the Trump dictatorship as early as next Monday. Lynching has a history here not without far greater precedent also masquerading as godliness: The Doctrine of Discovery. The Monroe Doctrine. Native American boarding schools. Abandoned treaties. A PLEA: Please read the 2018 book How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. Please, as many times as I can say the word please. Then, please show me if you can that it's not happening here. But if our democracy is dying, how can we save it? Do we even care? I once thought my oath of enlistment meant something. Was I a fool?

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AF Roger

about 4 years ago

The President has sent U.S. troops much deeper into Syria to protect oil production facilities because "people came knocking". Par for the course. Oil counts. Allies and people don't.

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