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.

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This day in history — April 13, 1947 — Civil Rights Activist Bayard Rustin Arrested in North Carolina

Posted on April 13, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On June 3, 1946, the Supreme Court in Morgan v. Virginia declared unconstitutional state laws that segregated interstate passengers on motor carriers. Shortly thereafter, the decision was interpreted to apply to interstate train and bus travel. The executive committee of the Congress of Racial Equality and the racial-industrial committee of the Fellowship of Reconciliation organized a “Journey of Reconciliation” through the Upper South to determine whether train and bus companies were adhering to the Morgan decision. Over a period of two weeks in April 1947, an interracial group of men traveled to fifteen cities in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky to test whether public transportation vehicles were operating without segregation.

On April 13, 1947, Bayard Rustin, a thirty-five-year-old black civil rights activist, boarded a bus in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as part of the “Journey of Reconciliation.” Mr. Rustin sat with a white man at the front of the bus and refused to move to the back when asked by the bus driver to do so. Police officers arrested him on charges of disorderly conduct and refusing to obey the bus driver. Three other activists traveling with Mr. Rustin were also arrested. When the men were released on bond, they were threatened with violence, and fled Chapel Hill after a white activist participating in the “Journey of Reconciliation” was assaulted.

Two years later, on March 21, 1949, Mr. Rustin was sentenced to thirty days imprisonment for sitting next to a white man on a bus, and spent over three weeks working on a prison chain gang that was overseen by armed guards.

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 12, 1955 — Researchers Announce Polio Vaccine, Developed from Henrietta Lacks’Cells

Posted on April 12, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On April 12, 1955, Dr. Thomas Francis Jr. and Dr. Jonas Salk announced the successful results of the first polio vaccine. Researchers developed the vaccine using cells from the HeLa cell line, cells derived from the cancerous tissues of Henrietta Lacks, a black woman who died in 1951 from cervical cancer. Ms. Lacks’ cells became the foundation for many medical innovations in the latter half of the 20th century, all without her family’s consent or knowledge.

When Lacks, a Baltimore resident, came to Johns Hopkins Hospital seeking medical attention, doctors discovered a lump on her cervix. After she died several months later, leaving behind a husband and young children, researchers discovered that her cancerous cells continued to reproduce in petri dishes every 24 hours – the first “immortal” cell line in history. The cells derived from Lacks’ body were named “the HeLa Line” and served as the foundation for many medical advances, including cancer and HIV/AIDS research, generating billions of dollars.

In the years that Mrs. Lacks’ cells were being used for research, the Lacks family was never notified or compensated for this use, nor were they asked for their consent. They first learned of the immortal cells more than twenty years after Mrs. Lacks’ death, when scientists sought to conduct research on her children to learn more about the HeLa cells.

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 11, 1913 — President Wilson Permits Segregation Within Federal Government

Posted on April 11, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On April 11, 1913, recently inaugurated President Woodrow Wilson received Postmaster General Albert Burleson’s plan to segregate the Railway Mail Service. Burleson reported that he found it “intolerable” that white and black employees had to work together and share drinking glasses and washrooms. This sentiment was shared by others in Wilson’s administration; William McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury, argued that segregation was necessary “to remove the causes of complaint and irritation where white women have been forced unnecessarily to sit at desks with colored men.”

By the end of 1913, black employees in several federal departments had been relegated to separate or screened-off work areas and segregated lavatories and lunchrooms. In addition to physical separation from whites, black employees were appointed to menial positions or reassigned to divisions slated for elimination. The government also began requiring photographs on civil service applications, to better enable racial screening.

Although implemented by his subordinates, President Wilson defended racial segregation in his administration as in the best interest of blacks. He maintained that harm was interjected into the issue only when blacks were told that segregation was humiliation. Meanwhile, segregation in federal employment was seen as the most significant blow to black rights since slavery, and seemed to signify official Presidential approval of Jim Crow policies in the South. After backlash that included organized protests by the NAACP, segregated lavatory signs were removed, but discriminatory customs persisted and there was little concrete evidence of actual policy reversal. The federal government continued to require photographs on civil service applications until 1940.

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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