🚀 go-pugleaf

"The Sanity Inspector" <chollanamdo@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:3b927d8e.1869300@news.mindspring.com...
> Real *miscarriages* of justice were instant, too.  There's a
> companion book to this exhibit, that's been in print for about a year
> and a half.  One of the victims was a jobless day laborer who stopped
> at a house to ask for food.  The housewife got spooked, and he was
> strung up.  Another occasion was a case of mistaken identity--a mob
> went into a neighboring burg and lynched the harmless town drunk.
> The victims were denied their day in court.  Those who *were*
> tried and found guilty and then lynched were denied due process.
> There are plenty of societies in the world today which regularly deny
> them today.  You're free to go if you really prefer that state of
> affairs.

(Sanity Inspector, note that I am agreeing with you, the tangent below was
sparked by your post, not really replying to it)

They were *all* miscarriages of justice. People in the US had a right to a
fair trial, most black men didn't recieve that in the late 1800's & early
1900's. Some still don't today. Even if they *were* guilty of the crime in
question they did *not* deserve to be lynched because of the color of their
skin. They deserved the same treatment that a white man would have recieved
if convicted of the same crime.

Here's a case that happened in my hometown in 1906 that has always bothered
me:
http://www.timesfreepress.com/2000/FEB/29FEB00/OPITI0129FEB.html
I visit this bridge often. It's since been turned in to a pedestrian bridge
as part of a long series of walking trails. From that spot you can see so
many symbols of injustice... Civil war battle sights, the Trail of Tears, an
island where Native Americans were  placed to die, where Civil War Prisoners
were kept, a cemetary where black men & women who were lynched were once
thrown in to shallow holes in the ground until members of the community came
out (50-70 years later) and gave them proper burials.

People walk, jog, socialize, vacation, etc... on this bridge. Children throw
stale bread to see the fish pop up out of the river, lovers get engaged,
families gather, mothers push their babies in strollers, teens
rollerblade... most oblivious to the history & sadness that surround this
place. But once in a while you'll see someone standing there, usually an
older man, alone by that second gurder. Tears in their eyes and a distant
look on their face as they remember the stories told by grandparents years
ago. It's sad that we ignore the truth, that these people look at a brass
plaque inscribed in memory of Ed Johnson and don't even know who he is. A
terrible injustice was done to this man, and so many of us choose to ignore
it.

*sigh*

Here's a huge list of lynchings:
http://blackhistorypages.com/Lynching/

Sure, some of these people, the ones who did commit the crimes, deserved to
go to jail. Some may have even been death penaly candidates. But not *one*
of them deserved to be the victim of a lynch mob. Lynching is murder, worse
than most other murders, a far worse crime than most of the lynch mob
victims were accused of. It's the lynch mob, the people who allowed them to
do what they did, and the people who didn't bother to try to stop them who
should have been hanging from bridges or trees.

And people wonder why so many African Americans are still so bitter... Did
we really just expect them to forget? They've had to *fight* for every right
that white citizens were handed freely. What makes you think they'll stop
fighting now? You don't think they still fear the things their ancestors
were once subjected to?

All men were created equal. That doesn't mean "all white men", it means ALL
men. And all of them deserve the same rights & freedoms *without* having to
fight for them.

Why does skin tone mean anything?

Melody