To mark 400 years since Africans were first forced to North America
I will distribute 400 weekly words, offer 400 lessons, construct a bibliography of 400 works, and collect 400 commitments to confront systemic racism more directly from 400 people.
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John Johnson in the Whytheville, Va., graveyard.
Photo courtesy of the Washington Post
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400 Years Blog #16 – Breaking Through Silence and Shame
On March 30th of this year, the front page of the Washington Post featured a photo of John Johnson. At 80-years-old he looks like a history detective, complete with dark coat and fedora. Much of his life he’s been obsessed with uncovering the truth about what newspapers in 1926 called a “crime of collective bestiality.”
A mob of 50 whites stormed the jail in Wytheville, Virginia, where Johnson’s father stood guard. They shot a young black Raymond Byrd, accused of a statutory offense against a white women. They dragged his body through the streets, and hung him from a tree.
Johnson explains his obsession: “I want the history out there…. I wish there would be some way that you could get those descendants still living to sit down at the table and say, you know, we’re sorry for what happened…. Admit it. I want them to admit it.” To open conversations with descendants of the lynchers like Beverly Hoch, however, Johnson treads gently. Hoch urges him not to publish his research, fearing the pain her many local relatives would feel. Despite Johnson’s “earnest politeness,” even after 93 years, silence and shame remain.
The conspiracy of silence has always been powerful. As headlines from the time explained, “Futile Attempt is Made to Discover Guilty Persons in Virginia Outrage.” The 70 witnesses interviewed by authorities didn’t talk. I wouldn’t have known about it if it were not for John Johnson. It would be, like Raymond Byrd, dead to the world.
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One of the most famous lynchings in America is described in Tim Tyson’s new book, The Blood of Emmett Till. Tyson managed to break through the silence of the former Carolyn Bryant. When the young adolescent Emmett Till spoke freshly to her in 1955, her husband, Roy Bryant, decided to teach the boy a lesson. Along with J. W. Milam they mutilated Till, and walked free. Only recently Carolyn Bryant spoke about it to Tyson. “They’re all dead now anyway,” she told him in nearly a whisper.
For John Johnson the history is alive. Though he admits that things have gotten better, silence is still a problem, especially in Virginia. After a chorus of protests, you don’t hear much noise anymore about Governor Northam’s “blackface” scandal. Will that fade away, or will we learn to face our history. As James Baldwin wrote, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
- Lesson #62: Acts of racial violence nearly a century old still make the front page.
- Lesson #63: Shame, handed down through generations, enforces silence.
- Lesson #64: If it were not for Mamie Till's effort and courage to share her grief with the world, Emmett's death just might have been another one of the reported 4000 plus lynchings.
- Lesson #65: Emmett Till’s murder launched the civil rights movement, but those guilty only suffered the ostracism of their community after they admitted their guilt to Life magazine for cash.
- Lesson #66: Today’s news cycle often moves so fast that issues concerning racism often are left unresolved.
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Emmett Till's death and the courage of his mother, Mamie Till, fueled the the growth of the Civil Rights movement.
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For Further Study:
- Scene on Radio: Movement Time has an interview with Tim Tyson, author of the new book, The Blood of Emmett Till.
- “The Keeper of the Secret,” by Stephanie McCrummen, is the story published in the Washington Post on March 30, 2019, that tells a fuller story of John Johnson’s quest to break through the shame and silence so that history can be known.
- NPR offers a story about the acquittal of the murderers of Emmett Till despite the courage of Mose Wright, his great-uncle who risked his life to speak out in court to identify Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, both whom profited off of their evil when admitting to killing Till to Life magazine reporters.
- Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race was written by Derald Wing Sue most specifically for teachers, but it is useful for us all. A video of one of his lectures is here.
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Hugh Taft-Morales
Is the Ethical Culture Leader of the Baltimore and Philadelphia Ethical Societies. This is his independent project - as much a learning experience as a modest effort to help others become more committed to, and effective in, anti-racism work.
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Next blog:
Schools, Cities, and Environmental Racism
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About this project:
This particular year-long commitment – which I am calling “400 Years” – is aimed mainly at people like me: people who identify as white, accept that racism gives them privileges, and want to confront systemic racism more consistently and constructively. Of course anyone can support the project, but my main hope is to encourage self-identifying whites who want to increase their efforts to confront racism and deconstruct white supremacy. I don’t intend on spending time trying to convince people who resist anti-racism activism. I want to help those who want to practice anti-racism to do it more often and more effectively.
This project will focus mainly on how racism in the United States has hurt Africans and their descendants. While non-whites from Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East are often brutal victims of racism, I have been taught most by victims who happen to be black.
So when white people wanting to be more active in anti-racism ask me, “Where do I start?”, I often say, “Start with the history. People of color have already shared their wisdom in countless writings from slave narratives to peer reviewed articles to award winning historical works.” The weight of 400 years of race-based oppression fuels my commitment. Perhaps it will help you with your own efforts to deconstruct white supremacy.
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