This day in history — April 25, 1959 — Mack Charles Parker Lynched in Mississippi

Posted on April 27, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In what some historians call the “last classic lynching in the United States,” Mack Charles Parker was killed on April 25, 1959, after he was accused of raping a pregnant white woman in Mississippi. Parker, a black man, denied the accusations and statements from those in the community suggested that the woman fabricated the rape claims to hide her consensual affair with a white man in a nearby town. Police officers garnered no conclusive evidence implicating Parker.

Days after Parker was transferred from the Hinds County Jail in Jackson to the Pearl River County Jail, a vigilante mob entered the jail and beat him. They then dragged Parker out of the jail while, bleeding profusely, he begged for his life. The mob drove to the Bogalusa bridge where they pulled Parker out of the car and shot him twice in the chest, killing him instantly. The mob then put chains around him and threw Parker into the Pearl River., where his body was found over a week later.

Despite an FBI investigation that identified many members of the lynch mob, no one was ever indicted in Parker’s murder. All of the suspects have since died.

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 24, 2013 — Alabama Man Sentenced to Jail for Consensual Homosexual Sex

Posted on April 27, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On April 24, 2013, a Dallas County, Alabama, trial judge sentenced DeWayne Williams to one year incarceration for violating a state law that criminalizes certain types of consensual sex between unmarried partners. Mr. Williams had originally been charged with 1st degree Sodomy, but the State’s evidence at trial – including the alleged victim’s testimony – failed to establish or even allege that the sexual encounter between the two men had been forced. Rather than drop the charges altogether, the prosecutors urged the trial judge to instruct the jury to also consider whether Mr. Williams had violated the state’s sexual misconduct statute.

Alabama’s sexual misconduct statute prohibits “deviate sexual behavior,”and defines such acts as “any act of sexual gratification between persons not married to each other involving the sex organs of one person and the mouth or anus of another.” Passed in 1977, the law was intended to criminalize same sex relations regardless of the role of consent; in addition, because same sex marriage remains illegal and unrecognized in Alabama, the law effectively criminalizes all same-sex relations regardless of marital status.

At trial, the jury acquitted Mr. Williams of the sodomy charge but convicted him of sexual misconduct, concluding that the evidence did establish sexual contact between Mr. Williams and another man. Mr. Williams was sentenced to twelve months in Dallas County jail and a subsequent two year period of supervised probation along with requirements to pay a $100 fine and the cost of his court-appointed attorney. For his act of engaging in private, consensual sex with another man, Mr. Williams was also required to register as a sex offender.

Throughout his trial and on appeal, Mr. Williams objected that the state sexual misconduct statute could not be enforced against him because it was unconstitutional under the United Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas. In that case, the Court had held that any laws prohibiting consensual sex between same sex individuals violated their Fourteenth Amendment right to “engage in the private conduct in the exercise of their liberty under the Due Process Clause.”

On June 14, 2014, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals agreed with Mr. Williams and reversed his conviction and sentence, holding that the sexual misconduct statute is unconstitutional and unenforceable. The court’s decision also held that the State of Alabama could not re-try Mr. Williams without violating double jeopardy protections, since he had been acquitted of sodomy at the first trial. Though the decision enforced national law that had been established more than a decade before, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange publicly denounced the decision as one that “leaves all Alabamians less protected from nonconsensual sex.” Sodomy, rape, and other sexual offenses remain illegal in the state.

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This day in history — April 10, 1956 — Nat King Cole Attacked by White Men While Performing in Birmingham, Alabama

Posted on April 27, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On April 10, 1956, African American singer and pianist Nat King Cole was performing before a white-only audience of 4000 at the Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama, when he was attacked and knocked down by a group of white men. The attack happened so quickly that some audience members believed the attackers had rushed the stage to attack a drunk man near the front row who had been jeering at Mr. Cole, “Negro, go home.” Police present at the concert in case of trouble apprehended Cole’s attackers quickly. Four men were charged with inciting a riot while two others were held for questioning. Outside the arena, officers later found a car containing rifles, a blackjack, and brass knuckles.

Nat King Cole was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1919 and moved with his family to Chicago as a child. He was a popular national performer in 1956 and, in observance of Birmingham’s racial segregation laws, had scheduled separate performances for white and black audiences. The night before the attack, he performed before a segregated audience in Mobile, Alabama, and was booed by scattered members of the crowd.

After the attack during the Birmingham whites-only show, Mr. Cole returned to the stage and received a ten-minute standing ovation but did not finish the concert. “I just came here to entertain you,” he told the crowd. “That was what I thought you wanted. I was born in Alabama. Those folks hurt my back. I cannot continue, because I need to see a doctor.” After being examined by a physician, Mr. Cole went on to perform at the scheduled blacks-only show later that night.

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 27, 2015 — States Continue to Celebrate Confederate Memorial Day

Posted on April 27, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In 2015, several Southern states continued to celebrate Confederate Memorial Day in memory of the surrender of Confederate General Joseph Johnston and his army on April 26, 1865. In Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia, the last Monday of the month is an official state holiday. Alabama also continues to celebrate the birthdays of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Confederate Memorial Day ceremonies originated immediately after the Civil War and were seen as a celebration of the Confederacy. Veterans would parade in full uniforms with songs, flowers, and speeches about the “Lost Cause”. According to Purdue University professor Caroline E. Janney, “It is a way to sustain an identification as a Confederate. It’s a way to sustain your southern identity and to continue to resist the federal government.” But for many, the Confederate identity that the holiday celebrates is inextricably linked with a history of racism and slavery. Slavery was, after all, written into the Constitution of the Confederate states, which mandated that no law could curtail the right of whites to own negro slaves, and that slaves could not ever be discharged from their service as slaves. For many, a state holiday honoring the Confederacy is a hurtful reminder of a brutal and unjust history.

This perception is heightened when overtly racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan mark Confederate Memorial Day with hate-filled ceremonies. In Mississippi, the KKK group United Dixie White Knights celebrated Confederate Memorial Day in 2015 by burning a cross, in addition to raising the Confederate flag and reciting the Confederate pledge.

Mississippi state representative Earle Banks has been trying to get legislation passed to remove this holiday from the state, but he has met with resistance from conservatives in the state legislature. In response, Banks has offered a compromise that would make Mississippi’s Confederate Memorial Day a joint holiday that also celebrates “Civil Rights Memorial Day.” He thinks that either people should have the option of celebrating one or the other of the holidays, or that the holiday should not exist at all. Of supporters of the Confederate Memorial Day, Banks said, “They may be proud of the fact that their families were Confederates and pro-slavery. They may be ashamed that their families were pro-slavery. My family didn’t have a choice on being slaves.

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 26, 1960 — Whites Attack Black Protesters at Segregated Mississippi Beach

Posted on April 26, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The Biloxi beach wade-in was a locally-organized nonviolent protest that turned into what the New York Times called the “worse race riot in Mississippi history.” The protesters walked onto Biloxi beach in order to hold a “wade-in” in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. They were met by a group of angry whites who told them to leave the beach. When the protestors refused to leave, the white mob attacked them with sticks, clubs, pipes, and whips. Local law enforcement did nothing to intervene. When white airmen from a nearby Air Force base tried to protect injured protesters, they too were attacked.

The violence on the beach spurred several more violent encounters in the city of Biloxi where whites harassed, attacked, and even shot at black residents. Many blacks had to be escorted from their jobs to their homes by deputies in order to avoid being attacked. Others chose to stay at their workplaces rather than attempt to travel home that night.

The Biloxi beach riots led to the creation of a Biloxi NAACP branch and also catalyzed a legal fight to open local beaches to people of color. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to desegregate beaches in 1960. Twelve years later, in 1972, beaches in Mississippi were officially desegregated.

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 24, 2013 — Alabama Man Sentenced to Jail for Consensual Homosexual Sex

Posted on April 26, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On April 24, 2013, a Dallas County, Alabama, trial judge sentenced DeWayne Williams to one year incarceration for violating a state law that criminalizes certain types of consensual sex between unmarried partners. Mr. Williams had originally been charged with 1st degree Sodomy, but the State’s evidence at trial – including the alleged victim’s testimony – failed to establish or even allege that the sexual encounter between the two men had been forced. Rather than drop the charges altogether, the prosecutors urged the trial judge to instruct the jury to also consider whether Mr. Williams had violated the state’s sexual misconduct statute.

Alabama’s sexual misconduct statute prohibits “deviate sexual behavior,”and defines such acts as “any act of sexual gratification between persons not married to each other involving the sex organs of one person and the mouth or anus of another.” Passed in 1977, the law was intended to criminalize same sex relations regardless of the role of consent; in addition, because same sex marriage remains illegal and unrecognized in Alabama, the law effectively criminalizes all same-sex relations regardless of marital status.

At trial, the jury acquitted Mr. Williams of the sodomy charge but convicted him of sexual misconduct, concluding that the evidence did establish sexual contact between Mr. Williams and another man. Mr. Williams was sentenced to twelve months in Dallas County jail and a subsequent two year period of supervised probation along with requirements to pay a $100 fine and the cost of his court-appointed attorney. For his act of engaging in private, consensual sex with another man, Mr. Williams was also required to register as a sex offender.

Throughout his trial and on appeal, Mr. Williams objected that the state sexual misconduct statute could not be enforced against him because it was unconstitutional under the United Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas. In that case, the Court had held that any laws prohibiting consensual sex between same sex individuals violated their Fourteenth Amendment right to “engage in the private conduct in the exercise of their liberty under the Due Process Clause.”

On June 14, 2014, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals agreed with Mr. Williams and reversed his conviction and sentence, holding that the sexual misconduct statute is unconstitutional and unenforceable. The court’s decision also held that the State of Alabama could not re-try Mr. Williams without violating double jeopardy protections, since he had been acquitted of sodomy at the first trial. Though the decision enforced national law that had been established more than a decade before, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange publicly denounced the decision as one that “leaves all Alabamians less protected from nonconsensual sex.” Sodomy, rape, and other sexual offenses remain illegal in the state.

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 24, 1877 — Federal Troops Withdraw from Louisiana, Marking the End of Reconstruction

Posted on April 26, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On April 24, 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes withdrew federal troops from Louisiana, the last federally-occupied former Confederate state. The withdrawal marked the end of Reconstruction and paved the way for the unrestrained resurgence of white Democratic rule in the South, carrying with it the rapid deterioration of political rights for Southern blacks.

In the years leading up to 1877, public support for federal intervention in the South waned. By the presidential election of 1876, federal troops had withdrawn from all but three Southern states, Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. These three states became the battlegrounds in a highly contested election between Mr. Hayes, the Republican candidate, and Democratic candidate Samuel Tilden. Mr. Tilden appeared to have won the popular vote, but the Republican Party disputed the electoral college results from the remaining occupied Southern states.

In January 1877, an electoral commission was created to resolve the election controversy. The bipartisan commission voted to award the popular vote and the electoral college votes of the contested states to Mr. Hayes, giving him a narrow victory over Mr. Tilden. President Hayes garnered Democratic support for the commission’s decision by pledging to end Reconstruction and withdraw the last of the 3000 federal troops from Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina.

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 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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