I take a knee until “liberty and justice for all” applies to all citizens and not just ones that look like me.
The slogan, “…make America great again” implies that the Country was actually great as some point in history. Let’s face it, race relations in the United States have never been good. Before you say anything or type anything, just think about it for a moment. Look at our history…the real U.S. history, not just the flattering stuff. This land was stolen from Indigenous Tribes of North America by European settlers. (Baptist, E. E., 2014) History records state that the first enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown Virginia on August 20, 1619. (National Park Service, 2018) At that time, slaves included Indigenous Indians, Caribe Indians, and Africans. The Country could have abolished slavery in 1776 when the founding fathers declared:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” (The Declaration of Independence)
But our forefathers didn’t really mean ALL men, now did they? Chattel slavery continued until 1865 when it was abolished on paper but not necessarily in practice. Before the Civil War, the southern states economy thrived because of labor intensive industries such as cotton, indigo, and sugar. (Baptist, E.E.) The banking industry also grew because owners received mortgages to purchase slaves. However, after the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, this cheap labor source dried up, the economy shifted, mortgages foreclosed on for non-payment, and banks closed.(Blackmon, D. 2008) While some former slaves continued to work on the plantations, the majority of freemen moved on. Other sources of labor did not produce the same outcome as slavery because certain slave incentives were not tolerated by the migrant worker.
To fix this manpower problem, southern white gentlemen devised polices that provided an abundance of cheap labor. Black code laws emerged through deals with police officers and Court officials that, in effect, treated African Americans as slaves. Such laws prevented people of African decent from owning property creating a dependence on sharecropping for food and support. However, black code laws prevented African American sharecroppers from selling their crops to any person other than the landowner. This closed market allowed the landowner to set the price below open market rates. The laws also limited free movement by requiring African Americans to have a pass to walk between towns thus hobbling the ability to seek employment elsewhere.
While the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, it did not provide rights for the now free blacks. Until the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868, African Americans were not considered to be American citizens and, therefore, not afforded liberties under the law. If stopped by a police officer, African Americans were required to show proof of employment or be jailed for laziness. African Americans did not have rights to defend themselves in a court of law. Judgments and penalties were at the Court’s discretion. Various administrative fees would be added to the fine to make a hefty sum that would both award the criminal justice system and ensure that the fine was beyond the “convicts” ability to pay. If a plantation owner needed another worker, he would simply pay the convicts fine and create an indenture contract for a lengthy term of hard labor. The commission of simple acts would land an African American in jail. Things like hopping a freight train; selling crops on the open market; selling wares without permission; talking to a white women; or simply being idle (waiting for a train for instance) would result in a hefty fine or prison sentence. Convict leasing was prevalent in the South and made the criminal justice system a lucrative undertaking. A “convict” would be leased out to plantations, steel mines, or factories for his prison term. Many would die in the mines because the horrendous working conditions. Alabama built a strong economy on the backs of convict leases especially through State contracts with U.S. Steel in Birmingham. (Blackmon, D.) Green Cottenham, on March 30, 1908, was jailed for waiting at a train station and, of course, for being black. He was charged for vagrancy. After not being able to pay the sum of $38.40 he was sentenced to six months and six days in a lease to Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad. Shelby County, Alabama, was paid $12 a month for each convict working in their mines.(Blackmon, D.) Pratt Mines was the most notorious mines owned by Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad that was acquired by U.S. Steel in 1907. Green Cottenham, grandson of a slave, freeman by birth, died in the mines because of the squalid conditions less than six months after he arrived all because the criminal justice wanted to supply cheap labor to a paying customer. Apparently, not much has changed over the years.
Jim Crow Segregation laws imposed what was herald to be “separate but equal” living conditions where the only word that really applied was “separate”: separate toilets; schools and educational opportunities; drinking fountains; lunch counters; soda fountains; transportation seating; and cinemas. The Ku Klux Klan formed to “keep Negros in their place”. Free travel was not standard and a person could be lynched if found in the wrong place. The “Green Book: for Negro Travel” was created in 1940 to share information on safe places to eat or sleep when traveling in the south because violating Jim Crow could result in a lynching. A lynching is defined as brutal murder carried out by a mob of two or more people. It doesn’t mean that a person is hung my their neck until dead. A lynching meant mutilation, burning, degradation, and murder regardless of how this was done. African Americans were viewed as a threat and a danger to the white way of life. Lynching were often referred to as a warning to other African Americans to not step out of line and mess with white people. Lynchings could occur for any number of reasons but the most popular was innuendos of sexual crimes as the black men were viewed as a threat to white women. According to research conducted by the the Equal Justice Initiative, about 4,000 people, including pregnant women and little children, were lynched between 1877 and 1950. Outside of that date range was the lynching of Emmett Till. He was 14 years old in 1955 when he whistled at a white woman when visiting his Great Uncle in Mississippi. He was beaten, mutilated, and killed by members of the KKK. (EJI) Perpetrators of such lynchings were not convicted even if they confessed to the crime.
The Civil Rights Movement swirled the motion of change through blood, sweat, and tears of many protestors through marches, boycotts, collective bargaining, and just plain persistence. The historic anti-segregation ruling of Brown vs Board of Education desegregated public schools in hopes of providing equal education opportunities. (Gates, H.L. & Burke, K.M., 2015) However, not every State adopted the Supreme Court’s ruling immediately. For instance, Alabama continues to have school segregation listed in their laws. Several attempts have been made to remove this stipulation but to no avail.
Ok, enough of a history lesson for now. Next up is the current day Jim Crow like criminal justice system that disproportionately targets and incarcerates African Americans through laws that govern the “war on drugs” and “war on crime”. Next up: Take a knee America: Part III. Blue Codes.
References:
Baptist, E. E. (2014). The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. New York, NY. Basic Books.
Blackmon, D. (2008). Slavery by Another Name. New York, NY. Anchor Books.
Equal Rights Initative (2018). National Museum of Peace and Justice.
Equal Rights Initative (2018). Legacy Museum: Slavery to Mass Incareration.
Gates, H.L. & Burke, K.M. (2015). And Still I Rise: Black America Since MLK, An Illustrated Chronology. New York, NY. Harper Collins Books.
National Park Service (2018) Historic Jamestowne. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/african-americans-at-jamestown.htm.
Rothstein, R. (2017). The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America. New York, NY. Liveright Publishing Corporation.