100+ years of terrorism, KKK has ~5,000 members today.
No, Nikki Haley, America was—and far too often still is—a racist country. On the long Road to Abolition from when the founders debated slavery until the Emancipation Proclamation, race-based slavery was the law of the land.
“Our Heroes” of the Confederacy still stands outside the county courthouse, as when Emmett Till’s murderers were acquitted in 1955.
Privileged people may be unconscious of racism on a daily basis, so here are some reminders from my recent roadtrip to Emmett Till’s site in Mississippi and driving the Selma to Montgomery Historic Trail.
While Till’s brutal murder sparked the modern Civil Rights movement in 1955, it did so by illustrating injustice, at great personal risk to the victims. Till’s great uncle was the first black man to testify against a white man in Mississippi, and he fled immediately. The police, jury, judges and elected officials were all white men, and at night, the Klan enforced extra-judicial vigilante penalties with impunity, involving many of the same white men.
Bullet hole ridden sign that marked Emmett Till’s discovery site until 2016.
And the source of that injustice is ongoing. New evidence of perjury came out decades after the trial, including the shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant reported in 2008 to admitting to lying about Till’s inappropriate flirting. As recently as 2016, another historic sign marking where Till’s body was shot, and the third sign on the site is bulletproof.
Typical cell for high school student protesters from 1963 to 1965, seen at Voting Rights Museum in Selma, Alabama.
For 100 years after the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, black people were systematically denied the right to vote, demonstrating the deep-rooted persistence of racial hate in America. Again, it took great courage to demand those Constitutional rights. Since their parents would be fired or worse if they dared speak out, high school students started the civil rights protests for voting rights. And while they sang bravely in crowded jail cells, these young kids were also beaten, humiliated and tortured; two years before Selma made national news.
Police beat a group of citizens unconscious for exercising our Constitutional rights on Bloody Sunday, 7 March 1965, Selma, Alabama.
An unconscious black woman and a bleeding white man, detail from Selma to Montgomery Historic Trail.
We have forgotten too much about Selma. It’s not enough to say that “folks died for our right to vote, so be sure to vote!” That’s true, but we can’t forget about the racism: systemic Governor-to-police, violently bloody, Klan-enforced with terror, and both deeply held and widely popular. That kind of hate does not dissipate quickly.
Many forget the hate, injustice and courage that drove common folks to demand their rights. We must not forget how much effort it takes to overcome hate. Please, take 5 minutes to watch this clip of Dr King speaking at the end of the Selma to Montgomery march. Listen carefully and be inspired!
