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Article Source: dawnali.comLynchings of African Americans is a taboo subject of history for some people. Nothing is more true of the lynching involving Mary Turner.
One of the members of the mob took a knife and split her abdomen open so that the unborn child fell from her womb to the ground and the child's head was crushed under the heel of another member of the mob; Mary Turner's body was finally riddled with bullets.
http://valdostadailytimes.com/local/x1155933227/Putting-the-past-to-rest
Her threats to swear out warrants “enraged locals. ... Mary Turner fled for her life only to be caught and taken to a place called Folsom’s Bridge on the Brooks and Lowndes counties’ shared border.”
http://www.footnote.com/spotlight/9757/mary_turner_lynching/
The link above is from the Atlanta Constitution in 1918.
The lynching of Mary Turner epitomizes a time in America when hate was rampant.
CoH please.
#1 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:44 PM EDThate and an utter lack of respect for law and human beings. If not for the Federal Gov't, there would be states that still in this day would follow that creed.
The lynching of Mary Turner epitomizes a time in America when hate was rampant.
This information is either largely suppressed or the known atrocities are simply written off as "typical of the era" as in the case of the Rosewood massacre.
I am enraged and disgusted every time I read about the atrocities committed in the past, but can do nothing to change what is in the past other than refuse to allow it to be overlooked and buried.
However, as Tony in Arizona noted below "not much has changed today" and that is something that I and everyone else who is against racism can do something about. I signed petitions calling for the resignation of the teacher noted below.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/01/teacher-who-assigned-math-homework-with-slavery-questions-resigns/
The third-grade teacher in Gwinnett County, Ga., who assigned math homework that asked questions about slavery and beatings, has resigned and apologized for the incident.
Rivera assigned math homework that included the question, “Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?”
Another math problem read, “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?”
.........................
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-11-23-hate-crimes_N.htm
The number of crimes against black people and members of religious groups increased in 2008, making up a growing share of incidents motivated by bias, the FBI reported Monday.
The number of attacks on blacks increased 8% to 2,876, accounting for seven of every 10 race-motivated crimes.
...................
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre
The Rosewood massacre was a violent, racially motivated conflict that took place during the first week of January 1923 in ruralLevy County, Florida, United States.
In 1982, an investigative reporter named Gary Moore from the St. Petersburg Times drove from the Tampa area to Cedar Key looking for a story. When he commented to a local on the "gloomy atmosphere" of Cedar Key, and questioned why a Southern town was all-white when at the turn of the 19th to 20th century it had been at least half black, the local woman replied, "I know what you're digging for. You're trying to get me to talk about that massacre." Moore was hooked.[44][45] He was able to convince Arnett Doctor to join him on a visit to the site, which he did without telling his mother. Moore addressed the disappearance of the incident from written or spoken history: "After a week of sensation, the weeks of January 1923 seem to have dropped completely from Florida's consciousness, like some unmentionable skeleton in the family closet"
According to historian Thomas Dye, Doctor's "forceful addresses to groups across the state, including the NAACP, together with his many articulate and heart-rending television appearances, placed intense pressure on the legislature ... to do something about Rosewood".[34] As publicity continued, additional survivors contacted the Holland & Knight law firm, who represented the descendants pro bono; by 1993, 13 survivors had come forward.
Florida's consideration of a bill to compensate victims of racial violence was the first by any U.S. state.
Even legislators who agreed with the sentiment of the bill asserted that the events in Rosewood were typical of the era. One survivor interviewed by Gary Moore shared this view: to single out Rosewood as an exception, as if the entire world was not a Rosewood, she said, would be "vile".[16] Florida Representatives Al Lawson and Miguel De Grandy argued that unlike similar atrocities against Native Americans or slaves, the residents of Rosewood were tax-paying, self-sufficient citizens who deserved the protection of local and state law enforcement. While lynchings of blacks by mobs around the same time were spontaneous and quickly concluded, the incident at Rosewood was prolonged over several days.[42] Some legislators began to receive hate mail, including some claiming to be from Ku Klux Klan members. One legislator remarked that his office received an unprecedented response to the bill, with ten constituents to one opposing it.
Thanks for the links and information MoCowgirl. I absolutely agree with you.
I am enraged and disgusted every time I read about the atrocities committed in the past, but can do nothing to change what is in the past other than refuse to allow it to be overlooked and buried
It is unfortunate that many would rather close their eyes to the atrocities of the past. The problem is that they still haven't opened their eyes to the atrocites being committed today.
Again, thanks. Outstanding post!
onefan51,
Thank you and you are welcome. I was raised in NW AR where it was nearly impossible to find someone who was not racist. Thankfully, I had a grandmother who wasn't and she alone taught me that it was wrong.... that we are just one people. It is truly amazing the difference that just one person that you love and respect can make in a person's life.
Other than a Filipino family, there were NO minorities within 40 miles of the area that I was raised in. NONE.
I married a young man who had enlisted in the Marine Corps when I was 19. Over the next 9 years, we lived in Southern California, Millington, TN, and Kaneohe, Hawaii. It was the only time that I have lived in areas without an overwhelmingly white majority. I loved actually getting to meet people from all over the country and the world. Whether we actually got along or had anything in common was not based on skin color... it was based on whether we had common interests or ideals.
When I moved back to NW Arkansas, the demographics were changing, but not the racist attitude and I often found myself openly at odds with the people that I had known all of life.
Some info on Sundown Towns in Arkansas ....
http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3658
Thanks for sharing MoCowgirl.
I was born and raised in East Central Alabama during segregation. Separate drinking fountains existed until the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. The "White" and "Colored" drinking fountains were replaced with one drinking fountain and a paper cup dispenser. I was a child at the time, but I remember it as if it happened yesterday.
I later joined the Air Force and the world opened up to me. As a young black man, this was my first experience in fostering meaningful interracial relationships and social friendships. I realized that racial fear was something that could only be overcome through knowledge. My cultural experiences from Europe to Southeast Asia, and other parts of the world broadened my horizons and made Alabama appear very small ... and some of its cultural practices small-minded. This holds true today.
One of my favorite authors is Donald Lee Grant. He was a white professor who taught History at Ft. Valley State University, a Historically Black College. He wrote several books on lynching and racial injustice. Below is a link to one of his books. I apologize that I can't provide the actual contents of the book. But if you get a chance to read any of Dr. Grant's books, I strongly recommend it.
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL5196169M/The_anti-lynching_movement_1883-1932
Thanks for sharing the Sundown Towns in Arkansas. I appreciate your candor and thoughtful insight. I look forward to seeing you around the vine. So, from south Georgia where I live, I would like to again thank you for visiting. Your contributions are invaluable.
onefan51,
It is easy to be candid online. However, I am just as candid in real life. I have had limited to no success in making area racists see their folly, but I have great success in making them keep their racist comments to themselves when they are addressing me directly. I will not tolerate it regardless of what race the hatred is being directed at.
In my experience, if a person is racist they are usually sexist. I can hold my own when it comes to sexist attitudes and comments, also. This is probably one of the reasons that I have been divorced three times, and it is not impossible that there will be a fourth.
It is a good thing that I am not running for "Miss Congeniality". :o)
If not for the Federal Gov't, there would be states that still in this day would follow that creed.
I couldn't agree with you more.
#2 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:30 PM EDTFor the last three hrs.or so, I've been reading about black women who were lynched. I saw Mary's name on the list and i couldn't believe it. Every lynching is a crime against humanity but I don't think I've ever read about one so horrific, if that makes sense. Why would they do that to her let alone the baby? Pure evil!
I was going to seed a list of women and that's how I found out about your article, onefan. (I haven't been able to check my watchlist yet.)
So I'll just link it here if you don't mind.
It has a lot of info. Three names stuck out because they were women with same last name; lynched on the same day, same year and in the same town. They must have been sisters. I can't find anything about them but I'll keep looking. Here's the list:
Recorded Cases of Black Female Lynching Victims 1886-1957: More on Black Women Who Were Lynched
#3 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:32 PM EDTDarrah.
Thanks for the link. I seeded Mary Turner because I'm familiar with her story. You're right, "pure evil" is an appropriate description of what happened. Lynching is a topic which has always interested me. Donald Grant, who is now deceased was a white professor at Ft. Valley State, wrote several books on lynching. Some of the stories he detailed were absolutely sickening. I agree, the topic of Black women being lynched should be explored in depth. If I find something, I'll let you know.
Fast forward to 2011, not much has changed. Instead of lynchings, blacks are being run over by pickup trucks, being dragged to death behind pickup trucks; that is, when not being assasinated by police for suspected criminal activity, or suspected firearm possession.
#4 - Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:43 PM EDTI agree with you Tony. The same racial attitudes present during the height of the lynching era have been generationally passed through time as if they were part of the nation's institutional fabric. These attitudes are the fuel supporting the fires of ethnic hatred. Events of today are wake-up calls from the past ... the sooner we all wake up, the better off we will be as a country.
Lynchings are one of the most horrible things in American history but as someone else above mentioned, it is not completely gone. It is just performed in other ways. Prejudice is still alive and well in many communities. I hope that I live long enough to see people being able to get past the color of someone's skin before making a decision on what kind of person they are. But I fear that this will never happen.
#5 - Sun Aug 14, 2011 3:40 AM EDTI hope that I live long enough to see people being able to get past the color of someone's skin before making a decision on what kind of person they are. But I fear that this will never happen.
I with you TDK. I would also like to get past a time when people make a decision based solely on someone's skin color. Lynchings have been a horrible reminder of such past decisions and there remains the ignorance regarding prejudice which continues to remind us of the actions of racial bigotry today.
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