The DNA of Story and Song

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

I am sitting in an affluent white church which, quite frankly, smells like old money.  A middle-aged white woman walks down the aisle like a bride at a wedding and stands near the row I’m sitting in and asks if anyone is sitting next to me.  (The entire row is empty.)  In answer, I stand and exit so she can enter.  She sits on the narrow wooden pew.  I retake my seat and she’s sitting barely one seat over from me.  She introduces herself, and I wonder if this was a New York City train and the seat next to me was vacant if she would have sat there.  I in turn introduce myself, and we both share what brings us to the church this day.  She is a member of the church.  My friend is celebrating her Jubilee, 25 years of mission work.  I met her nearly 15 years ago, at another affluent white church, where she was the Director of Mission.  Not from money herself, she has found herself working in affluent white churches, leading their various missions.  I know her struggles dealing with the privileged, and I admire how she pushes an agenda that makes many members of these rich churches uncomfortable.  Her agenda is simply moving people towards what it means to be Christian, right out of the Gospel According to Matthew.  I also think about a homily I once gave at an affluent white church on the Upper East Side, and since it was a lectionary church, I didn’t get to pick my text.  I got stuck with the text, The Temptation of Jesus Story.  I say this to say, like my friend, I will do and say things that might make the privileged feel uncomfortable.  In my homily, on Mission Sunday, I told the folk that mission, that pursuing a particular course of action, will take you places you might not otherwise go, and since I knew my audience, I quipped, “like Brooklyn,” which garnered some snickers.

Back in the pew.  The middle-aged white woman sitting next to me notices that on a small blackboard to our left near the altar three hymns are listed.  She muses if the congregation is going to sing.  I quickly grab the hymn book and look up the hymns: “Praise Ye the Lord, the Almighty:”; “Morning Has Broken”; and “O Day of Peace.”  She looks intensely at me, as if she can see my soul, and says, “I bet you can sing!”  I say, “I didn’t get the singing gene.”  She didn’t turn to salt, or ice; she seemed to take it in stride.  I’m assuming it didn’t go over her head.  I add, “I bet you can sing!”  She shares with me that she is in the choir.

As it turns out, we didn’t have to sing, or dance, so I tell this story.

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This day in history — April 9, 1865 – Lee Surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House

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

On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his approximately 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in the front parlor of Wilmer McLean’s home in Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War. Less than a week earlier, General Lee had abandoned the Confederate capital of Richmond and the city of Petersburg in Virginia, hoping to escape with the remnants of his Army of Northern Virginia, meet up with additional Confederate forces in North Carolina, and resume fighting. When Union forces cut off his final retreat, General Lee was forced to surrender.

Retreating from the Union Army’s Appomattox campaign, which began in late March 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia had stumbled through the Virginia countryside stripped of food and supplies. At one point, Union cavalry forces under General Philip Sheridan had outrun Lee’s army, blocking their retreat and taking 6000 prisoners at Sayler’s Creek. Desertions were mounting daily and by April 8 the Confederates were surrounded with no possibility of escape. On April 9, General Lee sent a message to General Grant announcing his willingness to surrender. Their afternoon meeting ended a war that had lasted four years and killed more than 600,000 Americans.

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 8, 1911 — Mine Explosion near Birmingham, Alabama, Kills 128 State Prisoners

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

By 1910, the State of Alabama had become the sixth largest coal producer in the United States. Between 1875 and 1900, Alabama’s coal production grew from 67,000 tons to 8.4 million tons. This growth was driven in large part by the expansion of convict leasing in the state; in Birmingham, the center of the state’s coal production, more than 25 percent of miners were leased convicts. In addition, more than 50 percent of all miners in the state had learned to mine while working as convicts.

State officials quickly learned how to use the convict leasing system to disproportionately exploit black people. In an average year, 97 percent of Alabama’s county convicts were black. When coal companies’ labor needs increased, local police swept small-town streets for vagrants, gamblers, drunks, and thieves, targeting hundreds of black Alabamians for arrest. These citizens were then tried and convicted, sentenced to sixty- or ninety-days hard labor plus court costs, and handed over to the mines. Employers frequently held and worked convicts well beyond their scheduled release dates since local officials had no incentive to intervene and prisoners lacked the resources and power to demand enforcement.

Conditions in the mines were deplorable. Convicts were often chained together in ankle-deep water, working 12- to 16-hour shifts with no breaks, and surviving on fistfuls of spoiled meat and cornbread stuffed into the rags they wore for uniforms. Describing the experience, a black former convict laborer recalled that the prisoners had slept in their chains, covered with “filth and vermin,” and the powder cans used as slop jars frequently overflowed and ran over into their beds.
Prisoner safety was not a priority for the mines’ owners and operators. In 1911, the Banner Mine near Birmingham exploded, killing 128 convicts leased to the Pratt Consolidated Coal Company. A local newspaper listed the crimes of the victims next to their names: vagrancy, weapons violations, bootlegging, and gambling. A rural newspaper observed, “Several negroes from this section . . . were caught in the Banner mine explosion. That is a pretty tight penalty to pay for selling booze.”

 

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 7, 1712 — Enslaved People Revolt in New York City

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

In 1712, New York City had a large enslaved population and the city’s whites feared the threat of rebellion. Enslaved people in New York City suffered many of the same brutal punishments and methods of control faced by their counterparts toiling on Southern plantations. The labor demands of urban life required enslaved people to move frequently throughout the city to complete tasks. This brought greater freedom of movement and communication for the enslaved, which they used to organize a rebellion against their harsh living conditions and lack of autonomy.

Organizers from several ethnic groups, including the Akans of West Africa, who viewed the colonial master-servant relationship as a violation of Akan tradition; the Caromantees and Paw-Paws, also of West Africa, who rejected the brutality of slavery; Spanish-speaking Native Americans who viewed themselves as free people who had been illegally enslaved; and Creoles, who joined in protest of their status and harsh treatment, came together to plan a revolt.

On April 7, 1712, the coalition set fire to a building in the center of the city. Armed with hatchets, knives, and guns, the rebels attacked whites as they arrived at the fire, killing nine and injuring seven. Colonial Governor Robert Hunter dispatched troops to quell the rebellion. The troops arrested some rebels and captured others who fled into the woods. Six of the revolt’s organizers reportedly committed suicide, twenty-one accused rebels were convicted and executed, and thirteen were acquitted and returned to bondage.

 

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 6, 1958 — Execution of Wrongfully Convicted Black Teen Jeremiah Reeves Sparks Protest in Montgomery

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

On November 10, 1952, Jeremiah Reeves, a 16-year-old black high school student and jazz drummer, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, and interrogated about the rape of Mabel Ann Crowder the previous July. Ms. Crowder, a white woman, had claimed rape after she  was discovered in her home having sex with Jeremiah – sex many in the black community suspected was part of a consensual, ongoing affair. Within minutes of his arrest, Jeremiah was taken to Kilby Prison where, during “questioning” by police, he was strapped into the electric chair and told that he would be electrocuted unless he admitted committing all of the rapes of white women reported that summer. The fearful boy soon confessed to the charges against him.

The local NAACP chapter became involved in his case and attracted the attention of national leadership, including lawyer Thurgood Marshall. Marshall and other counsel won reversal of Jeremiah’s conviction on December 6, 1954, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that the trial judge at Jeremiah’s first trial was wrong to prevent the jury from hearing evidence of how his confession was obtained.

While winding its way through the courts, Jeremiah’s case also became a flashpoint for Montgomery’s nascent civil rights movement. Claudette Colvin, who was arrested at fifteen for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a Birmingham bus in March 1955, was inspired to take that protest action as a show of support for Jeremiah, her friend and schoolmate. Claudette later became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the case that led the Supreme Court to order buses desegregated in 1956. Rosa Parks also corresponded with Jeremiah and got his poetry published in the Birmingham World; she went on to repeat Colvin’s gesture in December 1955, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott.

In the second trial, in June 1955, Jeremiah was again convicted and sentenced to death. All appeals were unsuccessful and he was executed on March 28, 1958, at age 22. Jeremiah had spent much of his time in prison writing poetry, and he willed his final poem to his mother.

On April 6, 1958, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at an Easter rally in Montgomery on the marked spot on the Capitol steps where Jefferson Davis had been sworn in as president of the Confederacy in 1861. In his speech, Dr. King protested the unequal treatment of white and black defendants and victims in the courts, and concluded: “Truth may be crucified and justice buried, but one day they will rise again. We must live and face death if necessary with that hope.”

The Ku Klux Klan tried to disrupt the rally, and afterward a group of thirty-nine local white ministers released a statement decrying the protesters’ “exaggerated emphasis on wrongs and grievances.”

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 5, 1921– Georgia: White Landowner Faces Trial in Murder of Eleven Black Sharecroppers

Posted on April 5, 2018 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Although slavery was officially abolished in 1865, African Americans continued to be held as de facto slaves in systems of peonage, a form of debt bondage. “Peons” or indentured servants owed money to their “masters” and were forced to work off their debt, a process that took years. A federal law passed in 1867 prohibited peonage but the practice continued for decades throughout the South. It was notoriously difficult to prosecute those who violated the federal law and those who were prosecuted were often acquitted by sympathetic juries.

Fear of a peonage prosecution led to a brutal spree of murders in rural Georgia in 1921. John Williams, a local white plantation owner, held blacks on his farm against their will in horrific, slavery-like conditions. After federal investigators suspected that Williams was violating the peonage law, Williams decided to get rid of the “evidence” of his crime by killing eleven black men whom he had been working as peons. Williams’s trial began on April 5, 1921, and four days later he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison several years later.

Following the murders by Williams and other local atrocities against black people, Georgia Governor Hugh Dorsey in 1921 released a pamphlet entitled “A Statement from Governor Hugh M. Dorsey as to the Negro in Georgia.” Dorsey had collected 135 cases of mistreatment of blacks in the previous two years, including lynchings, extensive peonage, and general hostility. Dorsey recommended several remedies, including compulsory education for both races; a state commission to investigate lynchings; and penalties for counties where lynchings occurred. Reflecting on the mob violence that had become common throughout the South, Dorsey wrote, “To me it seems that we stand indicted as a people before the world.”

In response, several officials denied the charges contained in the pamphlet and many Georgians called for Dorsey’s impeachment.

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 4, 1968 — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassinated

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

Thirteen hundred African American sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, went on strike on February 12, 1968, to protest low pay and poor treatment. When city leaders largely ignored the strike and refused to negotiate, the workers sought assistance from civil rights leaders, including Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King enthusiastically agreed to help and delivered a speech to more than 15,000 people in Memphis on March 18, 1968. Dr. King also planned and organized a march to take place ten days later. Against his wishes, the planned march turned violent and at least one protestor was killed as police forcibly dispersed the marchers. Dr. King planned a second march to take place on April 8.

On April 3, 1968, Dr. King braved a bomb threat on his scheduled flight and traveled to Memphis. He gave a short speech reflecting on his own mortality before retiring to the Lorraine Motel. The next evening, Dr. King was shot as he stepped out onto the motel balcony and rushed to nearby St. Joseph’s hospital. At 7:05 p.m. on April 4, 1968, 39-year-old Dr. King was pronounced dead, leaving a nation in shock and sparking riots in more than a hundred cities across the country. James Earl Ray, a white man, was later convicted of the murder.

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 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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