Easy Waters

On this Day in American history, September 10, 1963 — State Funds Private School for Whites to Avoid Integration in Tuskegee, Alabama

Posted on September 10, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In January 1963, African American parents of students in Macon County, Alabama, sued the Macon County Board of Education to desegregate the county’s public schools. Though the United States Supreme Court had declared school segregation unconstitutional nearly nine years earlier, the board had taken no steps to integrate local schools. In August 1963, Federal District Judge Frank Johnson ordered the school board to begin integration immediately.

The school board selected 13 African American students to integrate Tuskegee High School that fall. On September 2, 1963, the scheduled first day of integrated classes, Alabama Governor George Wallace ordered the school closed due to “safety concerns.” The school reopened a week later, and on September 10, 1963, the second day of classes, white students began to withdraw. Within a week, all 275 white students had left the school.

Most fleeing white students enrolled at Macon Academy, a newly formed, all-white private school. In support of the school and its efforts to sidestep federal law to maintain school segregation, Governor Wallace and the school board approved the use of state funds to provide white students abandoning the public school system with scholarships to attend Macon Academy. Meanwhile, the Macon County School Board ordered Tuskegee High School closed due to low enrollment and split its remaining African American students among all-white high schools in Notasulga and Shorter, Alabama. White students in those high schools boycotted for several days and many eventually transferred to Macon Academy.

Now Macon-East Academy, the school relocated near Montgomery, Alabama, in 1995, and today operates as one of several private schools in the Alabama Black Belt with origins rooted in resistance to integration. As of the 2007-2008 school year, Macon-East Academy’s student population of more than 400 was 98% white and less than 1% African American.

“The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is proud to present A History of Racial Injustice – 2018 Calendar. America’s history of racial inequality continues to undermine fair treatment, equal justice, and opportunity for many Americans. The genocide of Native people, the legacy of slavery and racial terror, and the legally supported abuse of racial minorities are not well understood. EJI believes that a deeper engagement with our nation’s history of racial injustice is important to addressing present-day questions of social justice and equality.

Posted in Lest We Forget, Uncategorized | Tagged Alabama Governor George Wallace, desegragation, Equal Justice Initiative, Federal District Judge Frank Johnson, integration, Macon County Board of Education, segregatin, Tuskegee AL | Leave a comment

On this Day in American history, September 9, 1739 — Enslaved Black People Rebel in South Carolina Colony

Posted on September 9, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

During the eighteenth century, the South Carolina colony’s economy was based on rice and cotton, which relied heavily on slave labor. Due to the slave trade that brought many black laborers from West Africa and the Caribbean, the territory’s enslaved black population outnumbered the white population in the 1730s. At the same time, Spain and England were in dispute over their claims to North American territories; Spain controlled Florida and, in an effort to undermine the English colonies’ supply of enslaved labor, promised land and freedom to blacks who fled bondage in English colonies for Florida.

Possibly motivated by Spain’s promises, a literate, enslaved African known as Jemmy, along with at least twenty other Africans enslaved in South Carolina, planned to rebel. Jemmy and his comrades were natives of the Kingdom of Kongo, a central African nation that practiced Catholicism, and sharing a common religion with the Spanish may have helped motivate their preference for Florida. The rebels planned to attack plantations on a Sunday, when their white captors were most likely to be unprepared.

On September 9, 1739, the group met by the Stono River and began their attack at a store near the Stono River Bridge, killing two whites and taking firearms. The group of rebels grew to over 80 people, who burned seven plantations and killed more than twenty whites. They were then confronted by a militia and in the ensuing fight, forty-four rebels were killed, along with twenty militia men. Most of the surviving rebels were executed, and the rest were sold to planters in the West Indies. The uprising, which came to be known as “Cato’s Rebellion” or “Stono’s Rebellion,” was the largest uprising of enslaved blacks in the American colonies prior to the American Revolution.

Posted in Lest We Forget, Uncategorized | Tagged Cato's Rebellion, Equal Justice Initiative, Jemmy, Kingdom of Kongo, slave lavor, slave uprising, Stono's Rebellion | Leave a comment

On this Day in American history, September 8, 1959 — Black Man Vows to Sue Mississippi Southern College if Denied Admission Due to Race

Posted on September 8, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In 1955, Clyde Kennard, a black U.S. Army veteran and Mississippi native, attempted to enroll in Mississippi Southern College, an all-white public university in the city of Hattiesburg. Mr. Kennard’s credentials met the criteria for admission, but his application was denied because he was unable to provide references from five alumni in his home county.

In December 1958, in a letter to a local newspaper, Mr. Kennard announced his intent to re-apply to the university. In response, the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission – a state agency formed to protect segregation – hired investigators to research Mr. Kennard’s background and uncover details that could be used to discredit him; these attempts were unsuccessful. Soon after, Mr. Kennard withdrew his application after the governor of Mississippi personally requested that he do so.

On September 8, 1959, Mr. Kennard once again tried to apply for admission to Mississippi Southern College. In a letter written to the college’s administration, he declared that, if again rejected, he would sue the University for denying him admission based on his race. After he unsuccessfully tried to register for courses on September 15, 1959, Mr. Kennard was charged with illegal possession of alcohol.

Despite this legal retaliation, Mr. Kennard continued his attempts to register at Mississippi Southern. In September of 1960, he was arrested and charged with assisting in stealing $25 worth of chicken feed from a local store. Although there was little evidence against him, an all-white jury convicted him of being an accessory to burglary, and he was sentenced to seven years in state prison. In July of 1963, while still incarcerated, Mr. Kennard died of colon cancer that had gone undiagnosed and untreated in prison; he was 36 years old.

Posted in Lest We Forget, Uncategorized | Tagged Clyde Kennard, Equal Justice Initiative, Mississippi Southern College, Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, Segregation | Leave a comment

On this Day in American history, September 7, 1976 — First Black Person Elected to Statewide Office in the South Since Reconstruction

Posted on September 7, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On September 7, 1976, Joseph Woodrow Hatchett was elected to a seat on the Florida Supreme Court, becoming the first black person elected to any statewide office in the South since the end of Reconstruction nearly a century before. A year earlier, in September 1975, Governor Rubin Askew appointed Judge Hatchett to a seat on the Court, making him the first black Florida Supreme Court justice in state history.

“Reconstruction” refers to a period following the Civil War, when the Republican-controlled United States Congress passed legislation granting black Americans citizenship, civil rights, and federal protection and established federally-controlled military governments in former Confederate states to oversee compliance. The inclusion of blacks in the political process angered many white Southern Democrats still invested in white supremacy. Their efforts to infringe upon blacks’ new political rights often involved extreme violence. Despite the danger of political involvement, blacks bravely took a more active role in the country’s political life than ever before, as both voters and candidates. Backed by federal forces’ presence and oversight, nine black men were elected to Congress between 1865 and 1877, and several black men served in the Florida state legislature.

When Reconstruction ended prematurely in 1877, with the removal of federal troops from the South as part of a political compromise to declare Rutherford B. Hayes winner of the contested 1876 presidential election, Southern states quickly passed laws to undo black political and social progress. This marked the start of a new era, defined by Jim Crow and widespread racial terrorism, in which blacks were economically exploited, restricted in their access to quality education and employment, and excluded from the political process through discriminatory laws and violent intimidation. The effects were immediate and long-lasting; most states in the region would not again elect a black person to state or national office for decades.

For many, the election to Florida’s highest court of Justice Hatchett, whose proud father and mother had worked as a fruit picker and domestic worker, realized the dreams of the civil rights movement, and represented a step in the direction of progress. After four years as a Florida Supreme Court justice, President Jimmy Carter appointed Hatchett to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth (later Eleventh) Circuit, where he sat until his retirement from the bench in 1999.

Posted in Lest We Forget, Uncategorized | Tagged Equal Justice Initiative, Governor Rubin Askew, Hayes-Tilden Compromise, Jim Crow, Joseph Woodrow Hatchett, President Jimmy Carter, racial terrorism, Reconstruction, Rutherford B. Hayes | Leave a comment

On this Day in American history, September 5, 1890 — Mississippi Abolishes Convict Lease System and Authorizes Creation of Parchman Farm Penitentiary

Posted on September 6, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In the summer of 1890, 134 delegates gathered in Jackson to create a new constitution for the state of Mississippi. Their primary goal was the political disenfranchisement of the state’s black citizens; one newspaper headline declared “White Supremacy” as “The One Idea of the Convention.”

Another key issue confronting the delegates was convict leasing, a system whereby the state leased its prisoners–overwhelmingly black–to private plantations and railroad camps where they faced brutal conditions and were often literally worked to death. The system was so outrageous that a legislative committee formed six years earlier to investigate conditions had documented widespread abuse. However, the legislature had not acted on those findings.

Rather than humanitarian concerns, the opposition to convict leasing that emerged in 1890 was spurred by economic competition. White laborers and owners of small farms felt the convict leasing system allowed the privileged plantation owners and railroad tycoons to maintain their economic dominance and displace white workers by leasing cheap black labor from the state. The conflict threatened to split the white Democratic consensus that had controlled the state since 1876.

Accordingly, on September 5, 1890, an overwhelming majority of delegates to the Mississippi constitutional convention voted to abolish convict leasing. Because there was no penitentiary large enough to hold the state’s prisoner population at that time, the convention set the order to take effect four years in the future: December 31, 1894. In the meantime, the convention ordered that the state establish a “prison farm” to house and work the state’s prisoners.

Despite the convention’s order, convict leasing lingered for years in Mississippi, and Parchman Farm would not begin accepting its first prisoners until 1901. By 1917, 90 percent of Parchman’s prisoners would be black men.

Posted in Lest We Forget, Uncategorized | Tagged convict lease system in Mississippi, disproportionate imprisonment of Blacks, Equal Justice Initiative, Parchman Farm Penitentiary, political disenfranchisement, white supremacy | Leave a comment

On this Day in American history, September 6, 2010 — Alabama Prison Bans Pulitzer Prize-Winning Book, Slavery By Another Name

Posted on September 6, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In September 2010, lawyers at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a nonprofit civil rights law firm in Montgomery, Alabama, mailed a copy of Slavery by Another Nameto client Mark Melvin, then incarcerated at Kilby Correctional Facility. Written by award-winning journalist Douglas Blackmon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning book documents the little known history of convict leasing in Alabama in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As the book’s title suggests, the exploitative and inhumane convict leasing system strongly resembled slavery. Under the pretext of criminal punishment, African Americans arrested on frivolous charges were sold to plantations, turpentine farms, mining companies, and railroads and forced to work in perilous conditions to pay off “debt” accumulated from unjust court costs and fines.

Deciding that the book’s title was “too provocative,” Kilby prison officials prohibited Mark Melvin from receiving Slavery by Another Name when it arrived in the mail. When Melvin used the internal grievance process to appeal the book’s banning, prison officials defended their decision and insisted the book was properly banned under a rule prohibiting material that incites “violence based on race, religion, sex, creed, or nationality, or disobedience toward law enforcement officials or correctional staff.” Alabama prison officials had previously limited prisoners’ access to portrayals of Southern racial history; in the early 2000s, wardens in some Alabama prisons prohibited prisoners from watching a re-broadcast of the Roots miniseries.

In September 2011, represented by EJI lawyers, Mark Melvin sued the Alabama Department of Corrections to be able to read Slavery By Another Name. The civil litigation was settled in February 2013, when state officials finally agreed to allow prisoners to read the book.

Posted in crime, Lest We Forget, Slavery, Uncategorized | Tagged censorship, Convict Leasing, Douglas Blackmon, Equal Justice Initiative, Kilby Correctional Facility, Slavery, Slavery by Another Name | Leave a comment

On this Day in American history, September 4, 1875 — Clinton Massacre Leaves More Than 20 Blacks Dead in Mississippi

Posted on September 4, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On September 4, 1875, Republicans in Hinds County, Mississippi, held a barbecue and meeting in the town of Clinton that was attended by 3000 people. Hoping to curb the risk of violent political conflict, Clinton authorities appointed special police and prohibited serving liquor. When the Republican speakers began making their political speeches in the afternoon, Democratic party representatives unexpectedly joined the meeting and requested speaking time. In the interest of keeping peace, Republicans accommodated the request and arranged for a public discussion between Judge Amos R. Johnston, a Democratic candidate for state senate, and Captain H.T. Fisher, Republican editor of the Jackson Times.

Both speakers were to be given an equal amount of speaking time, and Johnston spoke first, giving a cordial address. Fisher expressed optimism that meetings between the parties could take place peacefully in the future but eight minutes into his address the crowd was disrupted by an altercation. Soon after, a gunfight erupted between whites and blacks, and bystanders panicked in a rush to escape the danger. About 15 minutes later, three whites and four blacks were dead, and six whites and 20 blacks were wounded.

Newspapers reported that the blacks who fired weapons did so in self defense but local whites were enraged by the show of force. That night, armed whites from Clinton and Vicksburg formed roving bands intent on killing black men. By the next day, an estimated 50 blacks had been killed and many more had been forced into the woods and swampland to avoid attack, where they remained until the violence subsided on September 6, 1875.

Posted in Lest We Forget, Uncategorized | Tagged Captain H.T. Fisher, Hinds County Mississippi, Jackson Times, Judge Amos R. Johnston | Leave a comment

On this Day in American history, September 3, 1901 — Alabama’s New Constitution Bars Interracial Marriage and Mandates Segregated Schools

Posted on September 3, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On September 3, 1901, Alabama adopted a new state constitution that prohibited interracial marriage and mandated separate schools for black and white children. The state constitutional convention’s primary purpose was to legally disenfranchise black voters and the new constitution included several electoral policies to intentionally and effectively do that.

Because the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited race-based disenfranchisement, the discriminatory policies had to appear to be race-neutral but be applied with bias. The constitution called for the appointment of three registrars from each county who were expected to act with an intent to minimize African American voter registration. The constitution’s new registration rules required that voters be able to read and write any section of the United States Constitution and be lawfully employed for the previous 12 months. Anyone who did not meet the employment specification could still register if he or his wife had real estate and possessions taxed at $300. The constitution also included a “grandfather clause,” allowing otherwise ineligible voters to vote with proof that one of their grandfathers had been an eligible voter.

Prior to the enactment of the new constitution, there were approximately 75,000 registered African American voters in Alabama. It was estimated that the new rules would reduce the African American electorate to less than 30,000. Alabama delegates approved the constitution 132-12, with only one Democrat voting against it. Alabama has amended the 1901 constitution since its adoption, but has never held a convention to create a wholly new one. Several of the discriminatory provisions of the 1901 constitution, including the mandate to maintain racially segregated public schools, remain in place today.

Posted in Lest We Forget, Uncategorized | Tagged #MAG, #MAGA, Alabama, disenfranchisement, Equal Justice Initiative, Fourteenth Amendment, Interracial marriage banned, Mandated Segregated Schools | 1 Comment

On this Day in American history, September 2, 1885 — White Miners Riot Against Chinese Laborers in Rock Springs, Wyoming

Posted on September 2, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In 1885, the Union Pacific Railroad employed 500 coal miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, two-thirds of whom were Chinese. White miners, angry that the railroad was hiring Chinese miners to take their jobs, decided to drive the Chinese out of Rock Springs.

On September 2, 1885, a dispute broke out between white and Chinese miners when both groups wanted to work in the same part of the mine. Later that day, 100 whites gathered with guns, hatchets, and knives and marched toward “Chinatown,” where the Chinese lived, to brutally attack and riot against them. The Chinese workers attempted to flee but the white miners fired at them while they ran.

Twenty-eight Chinese people were killed in the massacre and another fifteen were badly wounded. The white miners looted and burned all seventy-nine houses belonging to the Chinese, leaving “Chinatown” demolished. In the days following the riot, federal troops were brought in to establish order. They set up camp between the white area of town and “Chinatown,” to prevent more violence, and remained there for the next thirteen years. Although fourteen miners were arrested in connection with the riot and murders, no one was ever convicted of a crime.

Today, there is little evidence of the massacre. There is no burial ground for the victims because at the time “Orientals” were banned from white cemeteries; instead, the victims were cremated and their ashes returned to China. Congress eventually authorized an indemnity to China in the amount of $147,748, but the United States government never assumed legal responsibility for the massacre.

On the 100th anniversary of the massacre, historians from Western Wyoming College placed a plaque in Rock Springs City Park, which reads: “This riot was precipitated by a decade-long deliberate company policy of importing Chinese miners to lower wages, break strikes and neutralize efforts to organize labor unions. Abetting the violence and cruelty was a virulent nationwide racism that viewed the Chinese as willing slave laborers and morally degenerate.”

Posted in Lest We Forget, Uncategorized | Tagged Equal Justice Initiative, Rock Springs Wyoming, Union Pacific Railroad, White Miners Riot Against Chinese Laborers | 1 Comment

On this Day in American history, September 1, 1884 — Chinese American Child Denied Admission to Public School in San Francisco

Posted on September 1, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

During the week of September 1, 1884, Joseph and Mary Tape, immigrants from China who had lived in the United States for over a decade, attempted to enroll their eight-year-old, American-born daughter, Mamie Tape, in San Francisco’s Spring Valley School. Principal Jennie Hurley denied the Tapes’ request on the basis of their race, and State Education Superintendent William Welcher supported that decision. Welcher justified the denial in part by noting that even the California Constitution described Chinese-Americans as “dangerous to the well-being of the state.”

In response to the school’s refusal to admit their daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Tape sued. On January 9, 1885, a California Superior Court judge ruled in the Tapes’ favor, holding that denial of admission would be a violation of California state law and the United States Constitution. The state appealed the ruling to the California Supreme Court, which affirmed the lower court’s ruling and held that Chinese students had a right to public education; the decision did not, however, prohibit the creation of segregated schools.

In response, the California legislature passed a bill requiring public school districts to create separate schools for Chinese-American students and to prohibit Chinese-American students from attending schools attended by white children. When Mamie arrived for school after the California Supreme Court’s decision, she was denied entry because her vaccinations were not up to date. By the time the Tape family was able to comply with the vaccination requirements, a new school had been opened for Chinese-American students and Mamie was forced to enroll there.

The Mamie Tape case occurred in the midst of extensive discriminatory treatment of Chinese-American children in California’s public schools. Until 1880, Asian-American students were forbidden from attending public schools altogether. The law excluding Chinese-American students from public schools attended by whites, which was passed in the wake of the Mamie Tape case, was enforced until the late 1920s.

Posted in Lest We Forget, Uncategorized | Tagged #MAG, #MAGA, California Constitution described Chinese Americas as "dangerous to the well-being of the state", Chinese Americans, Equal Justice Initiative, Joseph Tape, Mamie Tape, Mary Tape, Principal Jennie Hurley, San Francisco Spring Valley School, segregated schools, State Education Superintendent William Welcher | Leave a comment

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