Volume 7 Issue 18…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…May 7, 2004

The Death of Emmett Till (1963)

By Bob Dylan

"Twas down in Mississippi no so long ago,

When a young boy from Chicago town stepped through a Southern door.

This boy's dreadful tragedy I can still remember well,

The color of his skin was black and his name was Emmett Till.

Some men they dragged him to a barn and there they beat him up.

They said they had a reason, but I can't remember what.

They tortured him and did some evil things too evil to repeat.

There was screaming sounds inside the barn, there was laughing sounds out on the street.

Then they rolled his body down a gulf amidst a bloody red rain

And they threw him in the waters wide to cease his screaming pain.

The reason that they killed him there, and I'm sure it ain't no lie,

Was just for the fun of killin' him and to watch him slowly die.

And then to stop the United States of yelling for a trial,

Two brothers they confessed that they had killed poor Emmett Till.

But on the jury there were men who helped the brothers commit this awful crime,

And so this trial was a mockery, but nobody seemed to mind.

I saw the morning papers but I could not bear to see

The smiling brothers walkin' down the courthouse stairs.

For the jury found them innocent and the brothers they went free,

While Emmett's body floats the foam of a Jim Crow southern sea.

If you can't speak out against this kind of thing, a crime that's so unjust,

Your eyes are filled with dead men's dirt; your mind is filled with dust.

Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains, and your blood it must refuse to flow,

For you let this human race fall down so God-awful low!

This song is just a reminder to remind your fellow man

That this kind of thing still lives today in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan.

But if all of us folks that thinks alike, if we gave all we could give,

We could make this great land of ours a greater place to live.

About Me: Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941 in Duluth, MN, he learned to play the guitar and harmonica as a child. While studying art at the University of Minnesota, he started performing at coffeehouses under the name Bob Dylan, taking his last name from poet Dylan Thomas. Singer/songwriter/artist, Dylan's influence on pop music is incalculable. He sparked several genres including electrified folk-rock and country-rock. At www.bobdylan.com learn more about his music and life at www.entertainment.msn.com.

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is off to Chattanooga, Tennessee for a well-earned excursion. When asked for comments, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro remarked, "Ask me when I come back grandma!"

Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877)

Slave trader and Confederate military leader, Nathan Bedford Forrest was born July 13, 1821. In 1834, the family moved to Mississippi, where his father died in 1837, leaving a 16-year-old Nathan the sole supporter of his mother and several sisters and brothers. Initially, he worked as a farm laborer, then horse and cattle trader, before turning to the slave trade and real estate businesses, which made him wealthy.

In 1861, the plantation owner enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private. At his expense, Forrest raised and equipped a battalion. Lieutenant Colonel Forrest served with distinction at Fort Donelson, where, opposed to the commanding officers' decision to surrender, he led his cavalry to safety without gunfire.

Forrest, a colonel at the Battle of Shiloh, was severely wounded. A recovered Forrest became brigadier general by July 1862 and distinguished himself at the Battle of Chickamauga. Disgruntled, Forrest tendered his resignation, but instead of accepting it, the Confederacy promoted him to major general (1863). On reaching west Tennessee, thousand of volunteers joined his force. They became known as Forrest's cavalry.

For most of the Civil War, Forrest served as a raider; he disrupted Union supply and communication lines and delivered surprise attacks on isolated Union garrisons. On April 12, 1864, Forrest's cavalry assaulted Fort Pillow. In May 1864, having captured the fort, Forrest's cavalry massacred the Negro garrison.

A skillful tactician, Forrest's June 10, 1864 rout of Federal troops at Brice's Crossroads became the stuff of legends. With less than three thousand men, his cavalry destroyed a Union force of more than twice their number, earning him the respect and admiration of leaders on both sides of the conflict.

In February 1865, Forrest was promoted to lieutenant general and assigned the duty of guarding the Confederate frontier from Decatur, Alabama to the Mississippi River. His reputation tarnished as a result of the Fort Pillow massacre, a penniless Forrest surrendered forces under his command to the Union in May 1865.

In 1866, six Confederate veterans, enforcers of the Democratic Party, founded the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in Pulaski, Tennessee. The KKK named Forrest its grand wizard or commander in chief in 1867. He gave guidance to and militarized the Klan, which oppressed the black man, the principle target of its terrorism. In 1869, Forrest left the organization. He died in Memphis, Tennessee on October 29, 1877. Praised as one of America's greatest tactical minds, monuments, schools, state parks, and towns across the south are named in honor of this Confederate son. (Sources: Encyclopedia Americana, www.ngeorgia.com/people/forrest.html and www/home.hiwaay.net/~prm/forrest.html)

Lynching or Suicide?

By John Burl Smith

The last time 79 year-old Thelma Veal saw her son, Roy, was the evening of April 21, 2004. He had returned to the sleepy southern community of Donegal, located in Wilkinson County Mississippi, to assist his family in settling a property lawsuit. Filed on October 30, 2003 by Boyd and Marjorie Alexander of Natchez, MS and Kevin Krick of Baton Rouge, LA, the lawsuit claims the Veals trespassed on four acres owned by the plaintiffs and cut timber on it valued at $18,000.

Roy Veal, 55, who lived in Washington State, resided at his mother's on this visit. She indicated nothing was wrong when, "Roy left home Wednesday evening." Turkey hunters found his body hanging from a tree with a pillowcase over his head. Wilkinson County Sheriff Reginald Jackson said, "No scratches, cuts or other signs of trauma were visible on Veal's body." The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation's crime lab has not released autopsy results. However, Sheriff Jackson said, "The evidence is consistent with suicide."

Similarly, after a warning from the white County Sheriff in Kokomo, MS to stop dating his daughter, 17 year-old Raynard Johnson was found hanging from a pecan tree in the front yard of his home (7-9-00). The Johnson family openly disputed the coroner's ruling of suicide. The coroner's report did not explain how Johnson, tied up, hung himself without assistance.

Doris Gordon, Roy Veal's sister, who lives in San Francisco, echoed questions running rampant in the black community regarding the hood over his head and "burned papers at Roy's feet." Without evidence of assistance to tie him in the tree, for blacks the death is consistent with Veal being lynched. Is it suicide?

According to his mother, Thelma, there may be oil on the land claimed in the lawsuit. The entire 40-acre track of land owned by her late husband and his brother has been in the Veal family for 120 years.

By John Burl Smith

Death has profound affects on the psyche of survivors, whether relatives, friends or those who identify with the tragedy. Sometimes such events are so horrific the circumstances change one's mind-set and affect one's perception of life. One such incident was the lynching of Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi (9-55). Pictures of Till's sadistically tortured body and revelations of the brutality sent shivers through black America. Even more shocking and despicable were the confessions and subsequent acquittal of his murderers.

Like lighting across the heavens, lynching cuts deep psychological scars that leave parched emotions. Emblematic of that soulful moan of pain, loss and outrage that began aboard slave ships, Till's torture and death reflected the real American psyche. Murdered for whistling at a white woman, Till was a sacrificial lamb on the altar of American institutionalized racism.

Lynching is an instrument for controlling blacks. A socialization process began in slavery, lynching black men is group terror designed to produce a psycho-neurosis, I identify as "learned helplessness." Martin Seligman (Psychology Today 1973) first described "learned helplessness," after showing that rats exposed to "uncontrollable electric shock," rather than trying to escape, simply cowed. Seligman theorized that under such conditions severe stress induces a "lack of control" response of compliance. Hence, the diagnosis of "learned helplessness" in humans, particularly blacks, is based on the terrorist conditioning of slaves and their descendants in America to produce compliant "negroes."

Symptomatically, high anxiety, conversion, displacement and other avoidance mechanisms are chief characteristics of this psychoneurosis. Like rats on electric grids, slaves and their descendants were exposed to severe and intense terror, which created feelings of "lack of control" over their environment. Slaves knew masters held the power of life and death. This lack of control produced severe anxiety and distress.

Seligman's conclusions provide a revolutionary understanding of torture, terror and lynching as control mechanisms. His research shows that once animals are brought to this point, in order to terminate shock, rats can be taught to perform bizarre behaviors, even acts against their natural tendencies. Slavery, segregation and institutionalized racism are American-style terrorism that reinforces "learned helplessness."

Conclusively, the lynching of blacks like Emmett Till, Amadou Diallo, Tyeshia Miller, Raynard Johnson, Kenneth Brown Walker, Abner Louima and many others acts as subliminal messages that reinforce terror-based "lack of control." Whether the torture and deaths of blacks take place on streets or in prisons, with hoods over their heads or broomsticks up their anuses, whites deny such tactics are US control mechanisms. Police, the KKK and military all use similar tactics for the same reason. When application of their use become public, white America's "denial syndrome" kicks in to justify or disclaim such behavior as "un-American."

Disgruntled feels: Disgusted! Deniers exclaim the abuse of Iraqi prisoners is not "the American way." Historical facts scream to the contrary. Joining the chorus are compliant blacks, ignorant of their history. Living in towns named Forrest Park and Forrest City, their children attend schools and they support parks and monuments named to honor leaders of the Confederacy. Claiming their support of George W. Bush, a "wartime president," these clowns cheer campaign speeches that drip racist rhetoric. Even a saint would be disgusted.

Disgruntled wants to know: According to well-placed gossipers, including members of mainstream media, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is so enamored and closely aligned with George W. Bush that she recently made a Freudian slip, referring to the White House resident as "her husband." Like Julius Caesar, before his stay in Egypt, George Bush is rumored to be the ladies' man, and all the men's lady. Given his more manly preferences, one wonders if Lady Laura really cares one whit how a dominatrix views her spouse?

Disgruntled says: Like Israel and its refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the United States has refused to ratify the International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty, which went into force on July 1, 2002. To shield US nationals from ICC prosecution, the US has sought agreements with individual countries and extensions of its immunity from ICC regulations by the United Nations. For ICC signatories, the recent murders and abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison are crimes, without statute of limitations. Those liable include military and civilian superiors. Supposedly, a nation of laws, it is time the US followed the rule of law.

On Roll Call

By Dot

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths. Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" (Former First Lady and mother of George W., Barbara Bush on ABC's "Good Morning America" on March 18, 2003)

I expected to be disgusted, downright appalled, so many lives lost and all. Many in mainstream media dubbed the exercise, like photographing flag-draped coffins, crass politics, unpatriotic, "waste of a beautiful mind." According to the White House, even showing pictures of flag-draped coffins disrespects the families of those killed in combat. In general, intelligent people gather all available information, then make a decision. Independence is the American way. So, unconvinced by White House rhetoric, I watched The Fallen anyway.

As ABC's Nightline anchor Ted Koppel read the names of the dead, each picture flashed on the screen a few seconds. Anxiously, I wondered, scanning the images for recognition, could this be someone I knew, the child, husband or wife of an acquaintance or some distant member of my family? Within moments, the next name was called. Time, too short, certainly not that vaulted fifteen minutes of fame craved by average people whose lives are otherwise lived vicariously in obscurity. And, so it went, always two on the screen for the entire program, more than seven hundred in all. When there were no pictures of the fallen, the network used images of flag-draped coffins. It seemed apropos.

As the names droned on, more ominous than the sound of taps, I wondered, would the next one be a male or female, of what age, as if something so insignificant mattered? Some were so young, mere babies; many younger than my own children or George Bush and Dick Cheney's. The images of those aged eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one and twenty-two flashed by. So young, barely out of K-12 public school, they probably never left home to live alone before enlisting in the all-volunteer military, National Guard or Reserves.

Would the next one be black, white, Hispanic, maybe even of Asian descent? There were those that just seemed "mixed," legacy of the American melting pot. Whatever their heritage, I knew without a doubt these young people were victims of terrorism. Whether for or against the war, one cannot honestly blame unnamed Middle East fanatics for Western imperialism.

A few devious western minds orchestrated this raw aggression in opposition to cries for peace from the vast majority of humanity. Chances are excellent these young people would not have died at all had they been heeded and Great Britain and the United States abided by international law. Then, truly beautiful minds would not be subjected to the knowledge that the names of these men and women and thousands of dead Iraqis would not be listed on an unanswerable roll call.

Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes & Telephone Calls

Email skylax@comcast.net: Do you remember how many US soldiers died in the first Gulf War? On television at the time, they told you it was around 64. Later, as news agencies recalculated the total from a variety of sources, it became 146. But, now, some 13 years later, according to the Veterans Administration itself, the first Gulf War death toll among US troops who served there stands at 8,013!

Email Democrats-only@yahoogroups.com: The Bush's are members of the ruling elite. They are not concerned with the "common" people. Too bad some working people have not understood this. Maybe some working people who vote Republican think that somehow that will make them appear to share similar values as the super rich, when the truth is people like the Bush family only view working people as someone to be exploited or as cannon fodder.

Email deluxevaudeville@earthlink.net: As a veteran, I am insulted by the Sinclair Broadcasting Group's cancellation of the April 30th broadcast of "Nightline" on its affiliate stations. Senator John McCain spoke for many of us in a letter in which he stated that Sinclair's "decision to deny your viewers an opportunity to be reminded of war's terrible costs, in all their heartbreaking detail, is a gross disservice to the public, and to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. It is, in short, sir, unpatriotic. I hope it meets with the public opprobrium it most certainly deserves." Since 1997 through the end of 2003, Sinclair and its executives and affiliates have given 100% of their political contributions exclusively to Republicans, more than $165,000 in total. This leads me to believe that the real reason for this censorship is Sinclair's fear that a reading of the names of American dead in Iraq will reflect negatively on the Bush administration's conduct of the war.

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