A Lynching Memorial Is Opening. The Country Has Never Seen Anything Like It.

[SummerMadness]

A Lynching Memorial Is Opening. The Country Has Never Seen Anything Like It.

In a plain brown building sits an office run by the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, a place for people who have been held accountable for their crimes and duly expressed remorse.

Just a few yards up the street lies a different kind of rehabilitation center, for a country that has not been held to nearly the same standard.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opens Thursday on a six-acre site overlooking the Alabama state capital, is dedicated to the victims of American white supremacy. And it demands a reckoning with one of the nation’s least recognized atrocities: the lynching of thousands of black people in a decades-long campaign of racist terror.

I visited Birmingham, AL for the first time last year. I thought the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute was a good museum, I guess I should make my way to Montgomery this year or next year.

 

[thecolorsblend]

Atrocities?? Most lynchings were targeted against murderers and other violent criminals. Lynching is and should be illegal but the great majority of the “victims” got what they deserved.

 

[SummerMadness]

Atrocities?? Most lynchings were targeted against murderers and other violent criminals. Lynching is and should be illegal but the great majority of the “victims” got what they deserved.

Gotta love the justification for racist practices via extra judicial killings.

 

[thecolorsblend]

Gotta love the justification for racist practices via extra judicial killings.

You’re fishing for sympathy and I have none to offer.

 

[Hammster]

Atrocities?? Most lynchings were targeted against murderers and other violent criminals. Lynching is and should be illegal but the great majority of the “victims” got what they deserved.

No due process? Is that what they deserved?

 

[SummerMadness]

You’re fishing for sympathy and I have none to offer.

I'm not fishing for sympathy, you clearly have no problem with racism in America via a campaign of terror and extra judicial killings. You argue that people deserve what they got without knowing if they had committed a crime, relying on vague terms of "most of" when they did not even get their day in court.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Atrocities?? Most lynchings were targeted against murderers and other violent criminals. Lynching is and should be illegal but the great majority of the “victims” got what they deserved.

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." 5th Amendment to the US Constitution

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence." 6th Amendment to the US Constitution

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws" - 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, Section 1

Perhaps you don't care about the rule of law and the fair treatment of US citizens under the law, but most of us do.

The history of lynching in this country represents a cruel and barbaric suspension of civil liberty and the rule of law in favor of organized racist mob violence. In this country people are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

"The principle that there is a presumption of innocence in favor of the accused is the undoubted law, axiomatic and elementary, and its enforcement lies at the foundation of the administration of our criminal law." - Coffin v. United States, Page 156 U. S. 453

-CryptoLutheran

 

[PloverWing]

Wow. @SummerMadness , thank you for posting this. I've never been to Alabama, and it's pretty far from me, but I've just put this museum on my Bucket List. The visual in the photograph that the article opens with is more moving than I have words for.

I had the opportunity to visit the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin this past summer -- a memorial that, according to the article, provided some of the inspiration for the Montgomery memorial -- and it was an overwhelming thing to walk through. The lynching memorial looks like a similar experience.

 

[TerranceL]

And it demands a reckoning with one of the nation’s least recognized atrocities: the lynching of thousands of black people in a decades-long campaign of racist terror.

So it's a propaganda piece rather than a place to learn what really happened.
Lynching in the United States - Wikipedia

According to the Tuskegee Institute of the 4,743 people lynched between 1882 and 1968, 1,297 were listed as "white". The Tuskegee Institute, which kept the most complete records, documented victims internally as "Negro," "white," "Chinese," and occasionally as "Mexican" or "Indian," but merged these into only 2 categories of black or white in the tallies it published. Mexican, Chinese, and Native American lynching victims were tallied as white. Particularly in the West, minorities such as Chinese and East Indian immigrants, Native Americans, and Mexicans were also lynching victims. The lynching of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the Southwest was long overlooked in American history, when attention was focused on the treatment of African Americans in the South.[4][39][40]

In modern scholarship, researchers estimate that 597 Mexicans were lynched between 1848 and 1928. Mexicans were lynched at a rate of 27.4 per 100,000 of population between 1880 and 1930. This statistic was second only to that of the African American community, which endured an average of 37.1 per 100,000 of population during that period. Between 1848 and 1879, Mexicans were lynched at an unprecedented rate of 473 per 100,000 of population.[41]

After their increased immigration to the U.S. in the late 19th century, Italian Americans in the South were recruited for laboring jobs. On March 14, 1891, 11 Italian immigrants were lynchedin New Orleans, Louisiana for their alleged role in the murder of David Hennessy, an ethnic Irish New Orleans police chief.[42] This incident was one of the largest mass lynchings in U.S. history.[43] A total of twenty Italians were lynched during the 1890s. Although most lynchings of Italian Americans occurred in the South, Italians did not comprise a major portion of immigrants or a major portion of the population as a whole. Isolated lynchings of Italians also occurred in New York, Pennsylvania, and Colorado.

Between the 1830s and 1850s the majority of those lynched were whites. More whites were lynched than blacks for the years 1882-1885. By 1890s, the number of blacks lynched yearly, grew to a number significantly more than that of whites and vast majority of victims were black from then on. White people were mostly lynched in the Western States and territories, although there were over 200 cases in the South. According to the Tuskegee Institute, in 1884 near Georgetown, Colorado, there was one instance of 17 "unknown white men" being hanged as cattle thieves in a single day. In the West, lynchings were often done to establish law and order.[44][12][45]

 

[Shiloh Raven]

So it's a propaganda piece rather than a place to learn what really happened.
Lynching in the United States - Wikipedia

According to the Tuskegee Institute of the 4,743 people lynched between 1882 and 1968, 1,297 were listed as "white". The Tuskegee Institute, which kept the most complete records, documented victims internally as "Negro," "white," "Chinese," and occasionally as "Mexican" or "Indian," but merged these into only 2 categories of black or white in the tallies it published. Mexican, Chinese, and Native American lynching victims were tallied as white. Particularly in the West, minorities such as Chinese and East Indian immigrants, Native Americans, and Mexicans were also lynching victims. The lynching of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the Southwest was long overlooked in American history, when attention was focused on the treatment of African Americans in the South.[4][39][40]

In modern scholarship, researchers estimate that 597 Mexicans were lynched between 1848 and 1928. Mexicans were lynched at a rate of 27.4 per 100,000 of population between 1880 and 1930. This statistic was second only to that of the African American community, which endured an average of 37.1 per 100,000 of population during that period. Between 1848 and 1879, Mexicans were lynched at an unprecedented rate of 473 per 100,000 of population.[41]

After their increased immigration to the U.S. in the late 19th century, Italian Americans in the South were recruited for laboring jobs. On March 14, 1891, 11 Italian immigrants were lynchedin New Orleans, Louisiana for their alleged role in the murder of David Hennessy, an ethnic Irish New Orleans police chief.[42] This incident was one of the largest mass lynchings in U.S. history.[43] A total of twenty Italians were lynched during the 1890s. Although most lynchings of Italian Americans occurred in the South, Italians did not comprise a major portion of immigrants or a major portion of the population as a whole. Isolated lynchings of Italians also occurred in New York, Pennsylvania, and Colorado.

Between the 1830s and 1850s the majority of those lynched were whites. More whites were lynched than blacks for the years 1882-1885. By 1890s, the number of blacks lynched yearly, grew to a number significantly more than that of whites and vast majority of victims were black from then on. White people were mostly lynched in the Western States and territories, although there were over 200 cases in the South. According to the Tuskegee Institute, in 1884 near Georgetown, Colorado, there was one instance of 17 "unknown white men" being hanged as cattle thieves in a single day. In the West, lynchings were often done to establish law and order.[44][12][45]

Thank you for posting all of this information, TerrenceL. It isn't my intention to downplay the atrocity of black people being lynched, but other minorities, like Native Americans and Mexicans, are often left out of the discussion when it comes to addressing horrific lynching deaths in the past.

 

[SummerMadness]

So it's a propaganda piece rather than a place to learn what really happened.
Lynching in the United States - Wikipedia

According to the Tuskegee Institute of the 4,743 people lynched between 1882 and 1968, 1,297 were listed as "white". The Tuskegee Institute, which kept the most complete records, documented victims internally as "Negro," "white," "Chinese," and occasionally as "Mexican" or "Indian," but merged these into only 2 categories of black or white in the tallies it published. Mexican, Chinese, and Native American lynching victims were tallied as white. Particularly in the West, minorities such as Chinese and East Indian immigrants, Native Americans, and Mexicans were also lynching victims. The lynching of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the Southwest was long overlooked in American history, when attention was focused on the treatment of African Americans in the South.[4][39][40]

In modern scholarship, researchers estimate that 597 Mexicans were lynched between 1848 and 1928. Mexicans were lynched at a rate of 27.4 per 100,000 of population between 1880 and 1930. This statistic was second only to that of the African American community, which endured an average of 37.1 per 100,000 of population during that period. Between 1848 and 1879, Mexicans were lynched at an unprecedented rate of 473 per 100,000 of population.[41]

After their increased immigration to the U.S. in the late 19th century, Italian Americans in the South were recruited for laboring jobs. On March 14, 1891, 11 Italian immigrants were lynchedin New Orleans, Louisiana for their alleged role in the murder of David Hennessy, an ethnic Irish New Orleans police chief.[42] This incident was one of the largest mass lynchings in U.S. history.[43] A total of twenty Italians were lynched during the 1890s. Although most lynchings of Italian Americans occurred in the South, Italians did not comprise a major portion of immigrants or a major portion of the population as a whole. Isolated lynchings of Italians also occurred in New York, Pennsylvania, and Colorado.

Between the 1830s and 1850s the majority of those lynched were whites. More whites were lynched than blacks for the years 1882-1885. By 1890s, the number of blacks lynched yearly, grew to a number significantly more than that of whites and vast majority of victims were black from then on. White people were mostly lynched in the Western States and territories, although there were over 200 cases in the South. According to the Tuskegee Institute, in 1884 near Georgetown, Colorado, there was one instance of 17 "unknown white men" being hanged as cattle thieves in a single day. In the West, lynchings were often done to establish law and order.[44][12][45]

You posted something that does not contradict the memorial, but I assume this is the wordplay game where the fact that white people were also lynched somehow means that lynching was not part of a racist terror campaign used against black people.

 

[Rion]

You posted something that does not contradict the memorial, but I assume this is the wordplay game where the fact that white people were also lynched somehow means that lynching was not part of a racist terror campaign used against black people.

Are you trying to erase the lived experiences of these other groups?

 

[TerranceL]

You posted something that does not contradict the memorial, but I assume this is the wordplay game where the fact that white people were also lynched somehow means that lynching was not part of a racist terror campaign used against black people.

"white people".

It makes me happy that your post directly follows this one.

Thank you for posting all of this information, TerrenceL. It isn't my intention to downplay the atrocity of black people being lynched, but other minorities, like Native Americans and Mexicans, are often left out of the discussion when it comes to addressing horrific lynching deaths in the past.

It's quite telling that you somehow think telling the truth about all of the victims who were lynched is a "wordplay game".

 

[TerranceL]

Are you trying to erase the lived experiences of these other groups?

If they weren't black to some their lives don't matter. Neither do their deaths, indeed, bringing up their deaths is apparently a wordplay game.

 

[Rion]

If they weren't black to some their lives don't matter. Neither do their deaths, indeed, bringing up their deaths is apparently a wordplay game.

You've got to understand, Terrance, the Progressive Stack is serious business. Politically, publicly, and financially.

 

[SummerMadness]

If they weren't black to some their lives don't matter. Neither do their deaths, indeed, bringing up their deaths is apparently a wordplay game.

Are you trying to erase the lived experiences of these other groups?

Who claimed that there were not other victims of lynching? You can go chat with your contemporaries that often crow on about the "truth" of the Holocaust because they dislike the focus on certain victims.

 

[Rion]

Who claimed that there were not other victims of lynching? You can go chat with your contemporaries that often crow on about the "truth" of the Holocaust because they dislike the focus on certain victims.

...did you just compare us to antisemites? That's pretty ironic, all things considered.

D.C. lawmaker who said Jews control the weather visits Holocaust Museum but leaves early

 

[SummerMadness]

...did you just compare us to antisemites? That's pretty ironic, all things considered.

D.C. lawmaker who said Jews control the weather visits Holocaust Museum but leaves early

What's ironic about being compared to people that complain of the Holocaust because it focuses too much on Jewish people? You're saying the same thing.

 

[TerranceL]

Who claimed that there were not other victims of lynching?

What's the point in opening up a museum about lynching and not talking about it's victims? What's the harm in talking about the victims of all races? The only reason I can see there would be any harm would be if the idea behind the museum isn't to educate but propagandize.

You can go chat with your contemporaries that often crow on about the "truth" of the Holocaust because they dislike the focus on certain victims.

You heard it here, @Shiloh Weasley thinking that the experiences of your people should be in a museum is just like antisemitism.

 

[TerranceL]

...did you just compare us to antisemites? That's pretty ironic, all things considered.

D.C. lawmaker who said Jews control the weather visits Holocaust Museum but leaves early

Considering he's the one who only wants to focus on one group of victims and is bothered by the idea of talking about all of the victims.