Lynchings During and After Reconstruction: Brutalities to be Remembered

In an attempt to situate a little further the materials that I posted about monuments, lynching, and land loss, here is a quote from an article I wrote in 2018 about what lynchings were all about. 

"In the decades following the Civil War, an era of violence erupted, not unlike that of the infamous “patrollers” in slavery days in which black mobility and freedom attempts were met with violence. In particular, lynching was used to instill terror in the black population. Two sites contain the most thorough information on the history of lynching in America. The initial work of Monroe Work (n.d.) for the decades following Reconstruction lists the names of 4,800 plus and the work of the Environment Justice Initiative (n.d.) between the years 1877 and 1950 provides chilling information about the 4,400 plus African Americans who were lynched. According to Hahn (2003: 425–427), these mob executions or lynchings were symptomatic of the tensions between whites and blacks, as the former used this form of violence in an attempt to maintain power, as blacks exerted their rights. Hale (1998: 203, 204) emphasized lynchings as public spectacle as “structure, a sequence and pace of events” that went from allegations to mob violence following scene preparation, mutilation and/or hanging, and souvenir collecting, among other variables. Tolnay, Deane, and Beck (1996: 811) explored lynching from a spatial perspective—how lynching in one community impacted the same in another community. Their “deterrence model” of lynching is supported by evidence that whites ceased lynching activities when they were satisfied that the results would cause blacks to be “even more circumspect in their interactions so as not to provoke violent responses.” Young (2005: 641) focused research not upon numbers, nor spectacle, but upon the black body as souvenir." --- page 908. 

The complete article can be found at Hinson, W. R. (2018). Land Gains, Land Losses: The Odyssey of African Americans Since Reconstruction. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 77, 893-939. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajes.12233

A Day of Reckoning or Just an Ordinary Day

The perilous times in which we live are inescapable regardless of which newsfeeds we follow. Whether to the right, the left, or somewhere betwixt and between, we see it, or perhaps we keep our televisions turned off and stick our heads in the proverbial sand.

Perhaps our churches call for unity from the pulpit, and some do so without calling out the issues of the day which would call us to divide. I personally think that is backwards, and that it is simply trying to keep a lid on things.

The people that I hang out with these days are truth-tellers. People like Lawrence Lucas, Lloyd Wright, Marti Oakley, Shoun Hill, Richard Chowing, Kordel Davis, Corey Lea, Lander Bethel, Adam Zipkin, Jillian Hishaw, and many more. The list is too long to enumerate everyone. Truth-tellers write letters of protest. They appear on radio programs and zoom programs. They appear on national forums such as the National Whistleblowers Conference along with people like Stucki and Rosenberg, all truth-tellers who are investigative writers.

Truth-tellers and lie-tellers were all over Washington DC on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. Some lied to themselves that they had no part in the insurrection. Their names are Donald J. Trump, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley. Some have been lying to America for a long time. These are folks on the religious right who have co-opted the Christian faith with politics and turned the church upside down.

The mantra “God, guns, and Donald Trump” is a political ideology, but not a Biblical position that has any merit. Those who are Christological in their orientation like me know that the stories of life and justice and faith begin and end with Jesus of Nazareth. They know that Jesus was murdered by the religious right in concert with the powerful government of the day. They know that Jesus came to seek and save the lost and along the way He loved those who had been kicked to the curb by society. Overall, He was one of those folks whose people had been kicked to the curb. And so, he was found hanging out with sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, women, those overtaken by demons, those with shriveled hands and leprosy and paralysis.

So, on this sacred day, I am pondering the influence that Dr. Martin Luther King and his teachings have had in my life. I am pondering how we have gone from a country that despised him as an alleged communist and socialist, to one in which a day is set aside in his honor. I am pondering these ideas against the backdrop of a crazed mob looking for Vice President Pence, intending apparently on hanging him from the temporary gallows there on the Capitol grounds. Yes, the platform and the noose.

This mob, in a sense, was “lynching our country.” Or at least they were attempting to lynch someone.

Speaking of lynching, that notion and its inhumanities are well know by Black people in our country and by those of us who work alongside them and who know the history of mob violence in America. Want to know how to control people? Lynch them. Hang their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and cut their genitals off, save a finger for a prize, and yell while they are being burned alive, lifted up and down over the fires of hell as the onlookers cheer.

Want to know another form of “lynching?” Rob Black people of their land, livelihood, and generational wealth. Why? Because you can. That’s the way the system works. A Black family gets too uppity and wealthy? Burn them out. Starve them out. Steal their land.

In 1920, there were 950,000 Black farmers. There were 22,000 Black farmers who owned their farms. In 1910, Black farmers farmed 47,000,000 acres, down to 45,000,000 in 1920. In 1910, Black farmers owned 19,100,000 acres of land, down to 16,700,000 in 1920.

In 2017, there were 35,470 Black-owned farms with a total of 4,673,140 acres. The farm averaged 132 acres. At this same time, Black-owned farms was 1.7% of all farms, the acreage was .05% of all farms, and the average Black-owned farm was .30% of all farms.

Between 2013 and 2015, 86% of microloans by the USDA went to white farmers. Seven percent went to Black farmers. White farmers received 94.97% of all loans while Black farmers received .2% of the $5.7B loans. The amount of program benefits going to Black farmers was 0.80%. These stats come from Stucki and Rosenberg, 2019 and Lloyd Wright, 2020.

Just a few weeks ago, we were informed that 17,000 Black-owned farms were in danger of foreclosure. That is 48% of Black-owned farmers.

Want to know the value of land that Blacks have lost through the years and to various egregious means? Close to $1T. I cannot wrap my head around that much generational wealth that now resides in someone's hands rather than the original rightful landowners. 

Elsewhere I have written at length about Black land acquisition and dispossession. That article was published in 2018 and is easy to find. In my opinion, heir’s property is certainly an issue and has resulted in Black land loss, but, in my opinion, the greater culprit is the USDA, its county committee system, and the commitment to keeping white people in charge. The system is made that way. The system is working the way it was supposed to work.

Now, Senators Booker, Warren, and Gillibrand have proposed a revolutionary bill to address these grievances, The Black Farmer Justice Act of 2020. It levels the playing field in many, many ways.

I wonder what Jesus would think about these times. I wonder what Dr. King would think about these times. What would Jesus think about the “God, guns, and Donald Trump” slogan? What would Dr. King say about it?

What do white Americans think about racial justice? What do white Americans who stormed the Capitol building think about racial justice?

I think we all know what would be felt and said and done.

A Modern Day Lynching: #ahmaudarbrey

It's called a "lynching" by a person I follow on Facebook. He is an author, pastor, and justice advocate. I saw a lynching yesterday. I saw it again and again.

America has a harsh history with people of color. Ask Black Americans about plantations, auction blocks, and lynching trees. Ask American Indians about their trails of tears. It appears that we have created another means of destroying people of color, that is, white people destroying Black people. That history is still true.

The gruesome and brutal video and the death of Ahmaud Arbrey had completed slipped past me, I think due to the oppression of living in the days of COVID-19. I wasn't paying attention. Apparently, neither were a lot of us. America is now paying attention.

In the old days, and not that many years ago, this picture shows what we did. "Lynching as public spectacle" is something I have read and written about. Another form of "social control," another notion I've written about.  Today's lynchings are different. They are less obvious, but to many of us, they are still obvious. Listen to the stories of the families of the lynched and you'll hear.

Yes, that picture there to the right is brutal to see. Look at the bystanders. They could have been you or me if we'd lived uncritiqued at the time. Those folks look like they are at a picnic.

These days, we use other means of harming people. There are many phrases for the contexts of these heinous offenses, driving while Black, farming while Black, and now, this one, jogging while Black. Living while Black may get you killed.

Ahmaud Arbrey was gunned down two months ago as he jogged through the neighborhood. It is caught on video and in a 911 call. The video is deeply distressing. The sounds of those guns remind me of the days when I went deer or turkey hunting, but never human hunting. It is painful to hear and see. I think white America needs to see what a present day lynching looks like.

The story is captured in numerous places, but it is Shaun King who refused to let this man's murder get dropped. Finally, after two months, the DA is pressing for an investigation and for it to go to the grand jury which does not meet again until June. Here is Shaun King's twitter page that contains the brutal video. 

The man was jogging. Unarmed. He looked like someone who'd been looking in houses under construction. The two armed guys went driving after him. Apparently a third guy followed and was filming on a camera. There is some evidence that the film taker was passing it around. Like a trophy?

Did he also have a gun ready to use? The odds were stacked. Three white guys with guns. One Black guy in his running shoes.

For a heavy conversation about this event and its many, many implications, please listen to Loki Mulholland, award winning film maker, and Freedom Rider, Luvaghn Brown, discuss this heinous situation and the root causes of this madness that white people perpetrate on Black people.

If this were reversed, a white guy jogging and murdered by two, or three, Black guys, I think we'd be up in arms. Sadly enough, that's how we roll in our world. And it's sad to have to make that comparison to get some of us to think.

I think it's time for us to be up in arms about senseless killing of Black people doing whatever any normal person would be doing. Living.

Say his name. #ahmaudarbrey. #ahmaudarbrey.

We have much work to do. Living while Black should not be a crime. Yes, we have much work to do.

Throw the Stone, Lob the Gas

The biblical narrative of the woman caught in the act of adultery has fascinated you and me for years, has it not? After we debate the inclusion or exclusion of this story in the Gospel of John, we settle into it because it is terribly consistent with the Jesus we know in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Therein lies much hope.

Have you ever wondered about the deeper, richer context of this story? If so, you might read Schneider's article which you can find here. I think you'll find it interesting and challenging. 

Against this scene in which stoning was an overt option, I am thinking about lynching as public spectacle and theater. Thousands and thousands would gather to watch as a black person was lynched, charred, and mangled. Maybe public lynchings have been community events for a long time. In my recent publication, you'll find a section about this heinous activity. 

There is the scene of intense opposition. While He is sitting and teaching in the temple courts, the scribes (those who could write, as not all could) and the Pharisees come with a demand in an all too obvious attempt to trap Him. “We’ve caught her in the act of adultery and the Law demands that we stone her. What do you say?” 

The intent is to entrap and to lynch or stone this woman publicly in the community of Jerusalem. Outside the walls, of course.

To this situation of great irony, He pauses, kneels, writes on the ground while they continue to pepper Him with questions.

In the background rests the intense anxiety of the leaders of the day. They had lost control over their ability to self-govern to the power of the Roman government. Apparently, the Sanhedrin and its power had been diminished, much to the chagrin and anger and frustration of the Jewish people. No longer were the Jews able to proscribe lynching as an answer to crimes committed. The Roman government would not stand for it. Some leaders have sold out to the Romans. Others attempt to maintain their own sense of control by living segregated insofar as possible from the powers that be.

If Jesus said, do away with her, He would run against the grain of not only His teachings, but against the Roman government. If he said to let her go, He’d run against the teachings in the Law and the Prophets.  He was trapped. Or was He?

“If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” One by one they departed until Jesus was alone with the woman. Her accusers had walked away, the oldest to the youngest. “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir.” “Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”

I am pondering current day applications. Some I see. Perhaps you see others. Perhaps there are none. I think there are several.

We are stuck potentially on the horns of a dilemma, obey God or obey the God perpetrated upon us by the religious right and their anointed and appointed one in the White House. That man allegedly has the power to change the laws of the land with regard to any number of things, including immigrants. He has the autocratic power of the tweet and the pen to change things as he wishes, so he and his followers think. If we honor him, we are honoring God; and if we dishonor him, we are dishonoring God. If we deal graciously with the immigrant caravan, we will allow our nation to be plundered by criminals and thieves and the like. If we build that wall, and if we close off the borders, we insulate and protect ourselves against the raging hoards at our borders. And doing so honors God.

Or, obey God as we are told to obey God, or allow or chosen country to be swept away by immigrants who are turning our nation brown or less and less white.

The irony of honoring the Holy One of Israel versus honoring the presidency as it is currently inhabited is too biting to ignore.

Out of a power sense of ambiguity Jesus defused the mob intent upon lynching the woman. And, oh by the way, where was the man who participated in the vile act?

Our current political scene is driven by anxiety, especially in my opinion, those at one end of the political spectrum. MAGA or we shall all lose in the end. MAGA or we shall all be surrounded by brown people.  MAGA or the left will lead us down the slippery slopes to hell.

To ease our anxieties, we place prohibitions and controls on people and institutions. Out of our fear, we catastrophize and demonize the least of these. Yes, those people. The least of these.

Out of what sense of righteousness do we push back on inhumane treatment of people in our day and age? When power and privilege are right in front of our faces, demanding lynchings of various sorts, what do we do for the sake of righteousness? How do we stand with those who are facing the firing squad or the lynching tree or the tear gas or the jails?

Let those who have absolutely no ancestry of immigration in their background throw the first stone at an immigrant. Let those who have pure white blood cast aside the first person of color. Let those who are sinless castigate and rage against the sinners of our time.

Moral authority. Integrity. Standing with a non-anxious presence in the face of existential anxiety.

Images Near and Far, Yesterday and Today

The brown neck strains under the weight
The body pulled by gravity downward
The rope looped tightly around the tree
When will this dark soul be set free.

The people they gather from near and far

Thousands upon thousands come for the sport
They gaze and look and talk and stare
Upon this dark soul’s body hanging up there.

Lynching as public theater so some say

It was a time of bitter ugliness and cruelty
Brown skin less valuable than white skin
And who made that decision and still live therein.

The left versus the right and the right versus the left

Where is there a middle in this political world
Burning effigies we see left and right
The ugliness against the man goes on into the night.

The comedian was very foolish and we all now know

Some were gleeful and some were silent
The ugly side of the world is again amongst us all
We have chosen our sides upon the bitterness we call.

Why one scene is ok at that particular time

But now the same thing with the pages flipped
Goes against the grain of all that we hold dear
It is time for an accounting of all of us far and near.

Racism is wrong is wrong is wrong is wrong

Hatred is ugly is ugly is ugly is ugly
But sides we choose and truth we play loose
Until someone we love has his head in a noose.

Moses Pharoah Here and Now

Delivered ole Moses
That bush was burnin’
He had a lot of doubt
But his soul was yearnin’.

The Promised Land

Was way down the road
He had his many doubts
His gifts a heavy  load.

Aaron was a mess

He was the older brother
And God used him
Like He did no other.

Those plagues were over the top

Why couldn’t Pharaoh see
He wasn’t gonna win that war
Despite Moses’ plea.

God hardened pharoah’s heart

That was part of the plan
We read in the good book
Still not sure I understand.
 
Those people followed Moses
Through the path with the water walls
But then they grumbled and murmured
Can’t you just hear those calls.
 
People are so fickle
When God they could trust
The human condition is there
Turn to God they must.

Who’re we like

Moses, Aaron or the people
When discomfort comes around
Let’s blame it on the leader.

We were enslavers

And now that we’re all free
Let’s trust in God’s leading
To take us farther’n we can see.

We’re inspired by Moses

God’s deliverance the plan
When we ponder all of the madness
Here upon the land.

Jim Crow lives in our hearts

That’s really plain to see
Our plans written on the land
Wicked plans so grievously.

Those people were shackled

Their bodies but not their minds
Let’s work for a better tomorrow
Leaving Jim Crow behind.

Which is worse

That land or this
Why you want to compare
They are both too amiss.

Egypt in the day

Jim Crow written down
Though the laws are changed
They lurk and still abound.

It’s easier to change the laws

Than to change people’s hearts
But call it what we must
From day light till dark.

Pharoah held them in chains

And here we call it lynchin’
We steal their land, their livin'
We rob their inner vision.

Deliver us, O Lord,

Like you used ole Moses
Before we’re more like Pharaoh
And start using again those nooses.

This is the land of free

The home of the brave
Soften our hearts
Toward us come and save.