This day in history — April 23, 1899 — Sam Hose Lynched in Newnan, Georgia

Posted on April 23, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In January 1899, five Palmetto, Georgia, businesses were destroyed by two fires of unknown cause. Though there was no evidence to support the theory, white residents quickly concluded that the fires were set by black conspirators intent on destroying property and killing whites. Police soon randomly arrested nine black men. On March 16, 1899, a firing squad of “masked whitecaps” attempted to execute the men without trial, and five of the nine were killed. The four survivors were re-arrested and white officials imposed martial law on Palmetto’s black residents who were reportedly “le[aving] the town in droves” under threat of racial violence.

In the midst of these events, on April 12, 1899, a white Palmetto man named Albert Cranford was killed with an axe. A black man named Sam Hose who worked for the Cranford family was accused of the murder, and also accused of assaulting Mr. Cranford’s wife and beating the two Cranford children. The sensational allegations quickly became front page news, and the local press fanned the flames of racial outrage by theorizing the violence was retaliation for the Palmetto Massacre. Mobs searching for Sam Hose indiscriminately terrorized the black people remaining in Palmetto; two black men in the neighboring town of Griffin were severely beaten by white mobs for insisting that Sam Hose was innocent.

On April 23, 1899, Mr. Hose – whose name was also reported as Sam Holt – was captured and taken by train to Newnan,where members of the mob marched him through the streets with a chain around his neck, shouting “On to Palmetto!” “Think of his crime!” and “Burn him!” The crowd swelled to two thousand people– many riding in buggies and wagons – and ended about two miles from the town square at Old Troutman Field: “[a] place . . .favorable for the burning.” The mob proceeded to slowly torture Sam Hose to death, chaining him to a pine tree and mutilating his body in a violent display where the entire white male community appeared to act as a unit. As one newspaper described:

The wood was piled about the tree until it reached almost to the negro’s arm-pits. . . . At this juncture a man stepped out from the crowd and, with one stroke of a sharp blade, cut off an ear. This operation was repeated on the opposite side by another man. The small finger of each hand was then amputated. Other mutilations followed that cannot be described here.

Reports indicate Mr. Hose was castrated and disemboweled, and that members of the crowd took pieces of his heart and liver as souvenirs. The wooden pyre was then lit on fire and he was burned to death. “Men scrambled and fell over each other in their mad haste to secure something that would be a memento of the horrible tragedy. . . . Men shouted with joy as they showed these nauseating relics to their friends and fabulous sums of money were refused with contempt by many who were happy in the possession of their trophies and spoils.” Black sociologist and activist W. E. B. Du Bois later reported with disgust seeing Mr. Hose’s severed knuckles on display in an Atlanta store window one day after the lynching.

Neither state nor federal authorities took any action to investigate or punish anyone for the brutal and gruesome public spectacle lynching of Sam Hose. The day after the lynching, U.S. Attorney General John W. Griggs declared the violence “had no federal aspect [to it] and that therefore the government would take no action whatever in regard to it.”

From the Equal Justice Initiative’s A History of Racial Injustice – 2018 Calendar.

“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.

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This day in history — April 22, 1987 — United States Supreme Court Upholds Death Penalty Despite “Inevitable” Racial Bias

Posted on April 22, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In October 1978, Warren McCleskey, a black man, was condemned to die for killing a white police officer during a robbery. On appeal, Mr. McCleskey argued that Georgia’s capital punishment system was racially biased in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. In support of his argument, Mr. McCleskey presented statistical evidence that race significantly impacted the likelihood of a death sentence.

Mr. McCleskey relied on a study by University of Iowa professor David Baldus, who conducted a rigorous statistical analysis of more than 2000 Georgia murder cases and found that prosecutors were more likely to seek the death penalty and juries were more likely to impose it in cases involving black defendants and white victims. Even after controlling for crime-specific variables, the Baldus study concluded black defendants accused of killing white victims faced the highest likelihood of receiving the death penalty.

On April 22, 1987, the United States Supreme Court upheld Mr. McCleskey’s capital conviction in a 5-4 decision that accepted these racial sentencing disparities as “an inevitable part of our criminal justice system.” The Court accepted Baldus’s findings as valid but held the evidence insufficient to warrant reversal because there was no proof that any individual had intentionally discriminated against Mr. McCleskey on the basis of race. In dissent, Justice William Brennan wrote that the majority was motivated to deny relief by a “fear of too much justice.”

McCleskey v. Kemp upheld the constitutionality of racially biased capital punishment in America and remains the law today. The United States has executed more than 1200 people since 1987, including Warren McCleskey, who died in the electric chair on September 26, 1991.

From the Equal Justice Initiative’s A History of Racial Injustice – 2018 Calendar.

“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.

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This day in history — April 21, 2007 — Turner County High School in Ashburn, Georgia, Holds First Racially Integrated Prom

Posted on April 21, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On April 21, 2007, Turner County High School students attended the school’s first racially integrated prom. Located in Ashburn, Georgia, a small, rural, peanut-farming town of 4400 residents, the school’s racial demographics reflected those of the local community: 55% black and 45% white. The prom theme, “Breakaway,” was chosen to signify a break from the tradition of privately-funded, separate “white” and “black” proms sponsored by parent groups.

The school administration’s handbook provided for funding an official school-wide prom but stipulated that the senior class officers and student body had to express genuine support for an integrated event. During the 2006-2007 school year, the school’s four senior class officers ? two white and two black ? approached the principal to discuss holding a school-wide prom. Regarding the segregated proms, senior class president James Hall said, “Everybody says that’s just how it’s always been. It’s just the way of this very small town. But it’s time for a change.”

Turner County High School’s class of 2007 also abandoned the “tradition” of electing both a white and a black homecoming queen. White parents still held a private, whites-only prom one week before the school-wide event and some parents refused to allow their children to attend the integrated prom. Principal Chad Stone, who is white, said he would not make efforts to end private proms for future classes but favored the integrated approach, “We already go to school together ? let’s start a tradition so that 20 years from now, this is no big deal at all.”

From the Equal Justice Initiative’s A History of Racial Injustice – 2018 Calendar.

“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.

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This day in history — — April 20, 2012 — First Challenge Under North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act Proves Racial Bias

Posted on April 20, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On April 20, 2012, Cumberland County Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks issued the first decision under North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act, ruling that racial bias had played a role in Marcus Robinson’s 1991 trial and commuting Mr. Robinson’s death sentence to life imprisonment without parole.

Marcus Robinson, an African American man who was eighteen at the time of the crime, was sentenced to death in Cumberland County for the murder of a white person. North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act (RJA), which was narrowly adopted in 2009, authorized relief for death row defendants who could prove that race was a “significant factor” in jury selection, prosecutorial charging decisions, or the imposition of the death penalty. The RJA authorized defendants to bring claims based on evidence of discrimination at the statewide, judicial division, or district/county level.

According to a Michigan State University Law School study, during the time period Mr. Robinson was tried, North Carolina prosecutors used peremptory challenges to remove blacks from capital juries more than twice as often as they did whites, and that disparity was even more pronounced in Cumberland County. At Mr. Robinson’s trial, prosecutors removed only 15% of white prospective jurors, compared to 50% of the qualified African American jurors. At an evidentiary hearing on the RJA challenge, EJI Director Bryan Stevenson testified regarding the history and broader context of racial discrimination in jury selection. Following the decision, prosecutors immediately made plans to appeal and the state legislature passed measures that weakened the RJA.

From the Equal Justice Initiative’s A History of Racial Injustice – 2018 Calendar.

“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.

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This day in history — April 19, 1989 — “Central Park Five” Arrested for Rape

Posted on April 19, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On April 19, 1989, a woman was brutally raped and beaten in New York City’s Central Park. Police officers soon arrested five young men – four black teenagers and one Latino teen – and subjected them to hours of intense interrogation in order to extract confessions. Each young man later claimed that he had been coerced into making false confessions. Though there was no physical evidence to link them to the crime, they were convicted of attempted murder and rape, and sentenced to 5-13 years in prison.

In 2002, after another man confessed to the rape and DNA evidence confirmed his confession, New York Supreme Court Justice Charles J. Tejada granted the motions of defense attorneys and District Attorney Robert Morgenthau to vacate the convictions of the “Central Park Five” – though detectives continued to maintain that the defendants were accomplices in the assault. All of the young men had completed their prison sentences at the time their convictions were vacated.

Following their exonerations, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana Jr., Kharey Wise, Yusef Salaam, and Antron McCray sued the city for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination, and emotional distress. “You all don’t really understand what we went through,” Richardson said. “People called us animals, a wolf pack…It still hurts me emotionally.” The city refused to settle the suits for over a decade, but in June 2014 agreed to pay the men $40 million in damages.

From the Equal Justice Initiative’s A History of Racial Injustice – 2018 Calendar.

“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.

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This day in history — April 18, 1946 — Davis Knight Marries Junie Lee Spradley in Mississippi

Posted on April 18, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On April 18, 1946, a thirty-two-year-old Navy veteran named Davis Knight married Junie Lee Spradley, a white woman. In June 1948, the state indicted Mr. Knight for violating a law that prohibited “marriage or cohabitation between white persons and those with one-eighth or more Negro or Mongolian blood.” At trial, Mr. Knight insisted that he was white: his wife believed him to be white and his Navy service records listed him as white. The State set out to prove he was black.

The whole case turned on the race of Mr. Knight’s deceased great-grandmother, Rachel; if she was black, Mr. Knight was at least one-eighth black and guilty of the charge. As evidence of Rachel’s race, the State presented several elderly witnesses, including an eighty-nine-year-old white man who testified that Rachel had lived on his father’s plantation and was a “known Negro.” On December 18, 1948, Mr. Knight was convicted of being black and sentenced to five years in prison for marrying outside of his race.

He appealed, and on November 14, 1949, the Supreme Court of Mississippi reversed his conviction. The Court held that, in Mr. Knight’s particular case, the State had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that Rachel was fully black, so it had not proved that Mr. Knight was at least one-eighth black.

Though the decision did not strike down the state’s miscegenation law, or prevent future prosecution of Mr. Knight or others, many white Mississippians protested the decision, hanging members of the court in effigy. The state’s ban on interracial marriage would stand for nearly two more decades, until the United States Supreme Court’s 1967 decision in Loving v. Virginia struck down remaining anti-miscegenation laws in Mississippi and seventeen other states.

From the Equal Justice Initiative’s A History of Racial Injustice – 2018 Calendar.

“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.

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This day in history — April 17, 2006 — Latino Teen Beaten, Sexually Assaulted in Texas for Trying to Kiss White Girl

Posted on April 17, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

 

On April 22, 2006, David Ritcheson, a 16-year-old Latino boy, was attacked by two white teenagers, David Tuck and Keith Turner, at a house party in Spring, Texas. After Ritcheson allegedly tried to kiss a white girl at the party, Tuck and Turner knocked Ritcheson unconscious, dragged him outside, and beat him for approximately fifteen minutes while calling him a “beaner” and shouting “white power” and “Aryan nation.” The white teens then stripped Ritcheson naked, and Tuck cut Ritcheson’s chest with a knife and burned his stomach and chest 17 times with a cigarette. Next, Turner placed a pole in Ritcheson’s rectum and held it in place while Tuck kicked the end of the pole into Ritcheson’s rectum. The two teens then poured bleach over Ritcheson’s body.

At least two other white teenagers witnessed the beating but did nothing to help and later went to sleep in the house. The mother of one of the witnesses was home, but claimed she slept through the incident. Medical help was not summoned until hours after the attack, when a witness awoke and found Ritcheson still laying in the backyard.

After three months in the hospital and more than thirty surgeries, Ritcheson was able to return to school confined to a wheelchair and wearing a colostomy bag. On April 17, 2007, Ritcheson went public with his story and testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee in favor of strengthening federal hate crime laws. “With my humiliation and emotional and physical scars came the ambition and strong sense of determination that brought out the natural fighter in me,” Ritcheson testified. “I am glad to tell you today that my best days still lay ahead of me.” Two and a half months later, Ritcheson committed suicide.

Both David Tuck and Keith Turner were prosecuted and convicted for assaulting Ritcheson. Tuck was sentenced to life in prison and Turner was sentenced to 90 years.

From the Equal Justice Initiative’s A History of Racial Injustice – 2018 Calendar.

“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.

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This day in history — April 16, 1848 — Enslaved Africans Try to Escape Washington, D.C., Aboard Ship

Posted on April 16, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In mid-nineteenth century Washington, D.C., slavery was legal, pervasive, and a source of significant and growing tension. Abolitionists maintained a forceful presence in business and politics throughout the city and enslaved people escaping bondage in the nation’s capital often fled to Pennsylvania, a free state only eighty miles away.

In 1848, two white abolitionists, Daniel Drayton and Edward Sayres, decided to charter a sixty-four-foot cargo ship nicknamed the Pearl to help enslaved people in the Washington area escape to Pennsylvania. On Saturday, April 15, at least seventy-five enslaved adults and children from Washington, Alexandria, and Georgetown boarded the Pearl and embarked upriver. Saturday was a traditional day of rest for enslaved people and the abolitionists reasoned the escape would not be detected for at least a day.

The plan seemed destined for success until the wind unexpectedly changed direction at the mouth of the Potomac River, forcing the group to anchor and wait for better weather. By Monday, white slave-holding families in the city had been alerted to the escape. Thirty armed men promptly boarded a steamboat and chased down and captured the Pearlwhile it was still at rest. Mr. Drayton and Mr. Sayres were imprisoned until they were pardoned by President Millard Fillmore in 1852. The escapees were re-enslaved and many were sold to cotton and sugar plantations in the southwest. The escape attempt sparked three days of riots in Washington, as pro-slavery rioters attacked local abolitionists.

From the Equal Justice Initiative’s A History of Racial Injustice – 2018 Calendar.

“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.

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On this Day in History — April 14, 1945 –White House Correspondents’ Association Denies Black Reporter Access to FDR Funeral

Posted on April 14, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On April 14, 1945, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) tried to exclude Harry McAlpin, the only African American White House correspondent, from observing a funeral service for President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House. Two of twelve spots held for news and radio reporters had been reserved for African American newspaper representatives, but on the morning of the funeral, the WHCA instead gave those spots to two additional white reporters, asserting that the association did not represent black journalists. Over WHCA’s objection, the White House allowed Mr. McAlpin to cover the funeral service.

Racial discrimination in journalistic access to political events was common during this era. Denied admission into the press briefing room or other locations, African American reporters were forced to rely on second-hand information to report to their readership what was happening in Washington. Ordinarily, a reporter’s application for the credentials necessary to attend White House press conferences required approval by WHCA. The Congressional Standing Committee was responsible for granting reporters access to the House and Senate press galleries. Through the mid-twentieth century, both WHCA and the Congressional Standing Committee refused to grant access to any African American reporters.

To circumvent this discrimination during his administration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered White House press credentials issued to African American reporter Harry McAlpin, and on February 8, 1944, McAlpin became the first African American reporter to attend a press conference in the Oval Office. Notwithstanding this gesture, by the time of President Roosevelt’s funeral, WHCA continued to deny membership to McAlpin and the Congressional Standing Committee still had not granted any African Americans access to the House or Senate press galleries.

From the Equal Justice Initiative’s A History of Racial Injustice – 2018 Calendar.

“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.

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This day in history — April 14, 1906 — Horace Duncan and Fred Coker Lynched in Springfield, Illinois

Posted on April 14, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Two innocent African American men, Horace Duncan and Fred Coker, were accused of sexual assault in April 1906 in Springfield, Missouri. Whites’ fears of interracial sex extended to any action by a black man that could be interpreted as seeking or desiring contact with a white woman, and whites’ allegations against black people were rarely subject to scrutiny during this era. Local publications agitated racist sentiments by blaming rising crime in Springfield on black residents.

Though both men had alibis confirmed by their employers, a mob refused to wait for a trial. On the night of April 14th, the mob used sledgehammers, telephone poles, and other tools of demolition to gain entry into the men’s jail cells. Just before midnight, the mob hanged Mr. Duncan and Mr. Coker, forcing them to jump from the goddess of liberty statue atop the courthouse with ropes around their necks. Then, there in the town square, the mob burned the men’s bodies and riddled their corpses with bullets before a crowd of 5000 white spectators. Newspapers later reported that both men were innocent of the rape allegation.

From the Equal Justice Initiative’s A History of Racial Injustice – 2018 Calendar.

“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 Justice Chronicles, Lest We Forget, Murder, race | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments