This day in history — April 3, 1851 — Thomas Sims, Escaped Slave, Captured in Boston

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

Thomas Sims, Escaped Slave, Captured in Boston

In 1850, the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which sought to force Northern officials to apprehend alleged runaway slaves and ensure their return to slavery in the South. Any official who would “hinder or prevent” the arrest of a runaway slave or “harbor or conceal” a fugitive slave faced a fine of $1000 or six months imprisonment. Captured fugitives – as well as the many free blacks who were erroneously captured under the law as runaway slaves – had no right to a trial by jury and could not defend themselves in court.

In early 1851, Thomas Sims, a slave from Savannah, Georgia, successfully escaped and fled to Boston, Massachusetts, where slavery had been abolished. Only a few weeks later, on April 3, 1851, Sims was arrested by a United States Marshal and members of the local police force and taken to the federal courthouse. Fearing riots or an escape attempt, authorities surrounded the courthouse with chains and a heavy police force.

The morning after his capture, attorneys for James Potter, the man who purported to own Sims, presented a complaint to the United States Commissioner. After a short proceeding in which several individuals testified that Sims was the slave who had escaped from Potter’s possession, the Commissioner issued an order remanding Sims back to Georgia. Sims sought review from both the Massachusetts Supreme Court and the United States District Court in Boston, but was unsuccessful. On April 12, Sims left Boston and was returned to Savannah, where he promptly received 39 lashes as punishment for seeking freedom. The marshals who escorted Sims to Georgia received praise and a public dinner for their service.

After the Emancipation Proclamation and in the midst of the Civil War, Thomas Sims again escaped from slavery in 1863, this time fleeing Vicksburg, Mississippi, to return to Boston.

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 2, 1933 — Reuben Micou Lynched in Winston County, Mississippi

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

Reuben Micou Lynched in Winston County, Mississippi

On April 2, 1933, a mob of white men broke into the Winston County, Mississippi jail in Louisville, Mississippi to lynch a 65-year-old black man named Reuben Micou. Mr. Micou had been arrested after he was accused of getting into an altercation with a prominent local white man.

Black people carried a heavy presumption of guilt during this era, and many hundreds of African Americans across the South were lynched based on false allegations, accusations of non-serious crimes, and even for non-criminal violations of social customs and racial expectations. Such “offenses” could be something as arguing with or insulting a white person or, as in this case, taking action to defend oneself when faced with the threat of violence from a white person.

Mr. Micou’s body was later found in a nearby churchyard, riddled with bullets. His corpse also showed signs that he had been whipped. Weeks later, seventeen white men were indicted and arrested for participating in the lynching. This was rare during the lynching era, when members of lynch mobs acted with impunity and rarely had to fear facing any consequences for their murderous actions.

Despite the initial signs of prosecution, the cases against the seventeen men were “indefinitely postponed” in July 1933, and press reports predicted that the charges would be dismissed soon after. No one was ever tried or convicted for Mr. Micou’s murder.

Reuben Micou was one of at least 11 black victims of racial terror lynching killed in Winston County, Mississippi between 1888 and 1933.

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 – March 31, 1870

Posted on March 31, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Thomas Mundy Peterson becomes first black man in America to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave African American men the right to vote in all federal, state, and local elections.

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.

“This calendar is designed to be a helpful tool for learning more about racial history.  Expanded content from A History of Racial Injustice is available in our online timeline, which along with additional materials on the legacy of racial injustice and information about the work of EJI, can be found at www.eji.org.

“It is increasingly clear that our nation needs a more informed, detailed, and truthful understanding of our history and its relationship to contemporary issues ranging from mass incarceration, immigration, and human rights to how we think and talk about cultural monuments and icons.  We hope you find the calendar useful as we advance important and long-neglected conversation about race in America.”

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Confederate Soldiers Fought During the Vietnam War

Posted on March 30, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Did you know that during the Vietnam War, a division of American soldiers was fighting under a Confederate flag?  President Johnson wanted the flags removed.*

This is yet another example of the South not conceding that it lost the Civil War, not the War of Northern Aggression, as it’s called in Dixieland.  When you look at the Hayes-Tilden Compromise of 1877, then you’ll see why the South believes it won the war.

 

 

*Editorial, “A journalist who spoke truth to power,” amNewYork, 3/28/18, p. A8.

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Remembering Les Payne — FAKE NEWS, Tweets, and Ftweets*

Posted on March 30, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In this moment of “FAKE NEWS,” often decried by its most ardent propagater-in-chief, it is worth nothing what recently deceased Les Payne, Black Journalist Extraordinare, gave as advice to young reporters: “Journalism begins when somone says no.”  Most importantly, the purpose of journalism is to hold power accountable.

The Founding Fathers, flaws and all, got one thing right: a nation should have a Free Press. This is why the Press is considered the Fourth Estate, an additional check and  balance — a watch dog of sorts — on the three branches of government, which is sometimes a three-headed monster, mostly when one party is in control of the Executive Office, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.

My writing is rooted in journalism, when I first identified FAKE NEWS, in 1976 — a friend committed a crime, of which I knew details, and reading the news about the crime, I knew that it was…fake.  At 16, I then began to write to find my voice, and to tell the truth as I saw it as a Black man-child.  I intutively knew what Mr. Payne knew, and what was noted in the Kerner Commission report, that newspapers and TV news failed to report clearly on Black life, and employed very few Black people to better shape and inform reporting, which was, and  to a great extent still is, reporting from “white men’s eyes and white [men’s] perspective[s].”  (And it matters not if a Black talking head is espousing this, if it is from those white eyes and white perspective, and it is not being informed by Black eyes and a Black perspective.)

Finally, in an editorial about Les Payne in amNewYork, 3/28/18, “A journalist who spoke truth to power,”  it is noted that “Payne believed society would be better if journalists helped it know better.  It’s a lesson to remember.”

 

*”Ftweets” I define as Fake Tweets, another form of FAKE NEWS, mostly from the FAKE NEWS propagater-in-chief, and his merry band of people who do not tell the truth.

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This day in history — March 30, 2018 — No Bloody Friday!

Posted on March 30, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On this day in history, the Equal Racial Justice Initiative’s A History of Racial Injustice – 2018 Calendar, does not report an incident….  I wonder if racist whites ceased their Reign of Terror against Black people because it was Good Friday?  Ironic, in that Ku Klux Klansmen, and -women, and the rebranded merry band of white racists, that is, “white nationalists,” for the most part, purport to be Christian.  The very same white Christians that exegeted that their blonde-haired, blue-eyed white god sanctioned African slavery, and the genocide of indigenous people in the Western hemisphere, the very same white Christians that led a deadly procession under dark starless Southern nights to poplar trees, lit by fiery crosses, before they re-enacted the crucifixion with countless, oftentimes nameless, Black men — strange fruit — as their scapegoats for their passionate hatred.

It’s also a Good Friday, because it was not a Bloody Friday!

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This day in history – March 29, 1944

Posted on March 29, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Reverend Isaac Simmons, a black man, is buried three days after he is murdered by six white men who wanted to steal his family’s land in Mississippi; his family is threatened and flees the county.

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.

“This calendar is designed to be a helpful tool for learning more about racial history.  Expanded content from A History of Racial Injustice is available in our online timeline, which along with additional materials on the legacy of racial injustice and information about the work of EJI, can be found at www.eji.org.

“It is increasingly clear that our nation needs a more informed, detailed, and truthful understanding of our history and its relationship to contemporary issues ranging from mass incarceration, immigration, and human rights to how we think and talk about cultural monuments and icons.  We hope you find the calendar useful as we advance important and long-neglected conversation about race in America.”

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This day in history – March 28, 1956

Posted on March 28, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Churches and synagogues nationwide keep their doors open all day in observance of a National Deliverance Day of Prayer to support the Montgomery bus boycott.

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.

“This calendar is designed to be a helpful tool for learning more about racial history.  Expanded content from A History of Racial Injustice is available in our online timeline, which along with additional materials on the legacy of racial injustice and information about the work of EJI, can be found at www.eji.org.

“It is increasingly clear that our nation needs a more informed, detailed, and truthful understanding of our history and its relationship to contemporary issues ranging from mass incarceration, immigration, and human rights to how we think and talk about cultural monuments and icons.  We hope you find the calendar useful as we advance important and long-neglected conversation about race in America.”

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This day in history – March 27, 1974

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

Delbert Tibbs, a black hitchhiker from Chicago, is indicted for capital murder of a white couple in Florida; he is wrongfully convicted by an all-white jury and spends two years on death row.

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.

“This calendar is designed to be a helpful tool for learning more about racial history.  Expanded content from A History of Racial Injustice is available in our online timeline, which along with additional materials on the legacy of racial injustice and information about the work of EJI, can be found at www.eji.org.

“It is increasingly clear that our nation needs a more informed, detailed, and truthful understanding of our history and its relationship to contemporary issues ranging from mass incarceration, immigration, and human rights to how we think and talk about cultural monuments and icons.  We hope you find the calendar useful as we advance important and long-neglected conversation about race in America.”

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Lest We Forget, race | Leave a comment

This day in history – March 26, 1931

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

In Scottsboro, Alabama, nine black teens are accused of raping two white women and almost lynched; the “Scottsboro Boys” gain national attention after their raciallbiased trial results in death sentences.”

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.

“This calendar is designed to be a helpful tool for learning more about racial history.  Expanded content from A History of Racial Injustice is available in our online timeline, which along with additional materials on the legacy of racial injustice and information about the work of EJI, can be found at www.eji.org.

“It is increasingly clear that our nation needs a more informed, detailed, and truthful understanding of our history and its relationship to contemporary issues ranging from mass incarceration, immigration, and human rights to how we think and talk about cultural monuments and icons.  We hope you find the calendar useful as we advance important and long-neglected conversation about race in America.”

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Lest We Forget, race | Tagged | Leave a comment