HUMAN RIGHTS PETITION ON BEHALF OF
SLAVE DESCENDANTS LIVING IN THE
Friends and Supporters:
It
is truly a great pleasure to inform you that I have prepared a human rights
petition and have reached the final stages leading up to filing it. Attached is
a read and comment copy for your examination. Feel free to forward any
concerns, changes or corrections you wish to me. If you have friends or
colleagues that are concerned about this issue and wish to be a part of
developing a solution, please forward it to them. Those supporters who wish to
make it known that they were a part of this process from its early stages and
desire to have their name added to the petition when it is filed need to make
that known via email to me.
Also,
I have attached a copy of the notification letter I sent to the Human Rights
Council back in March informing them of my intention - on behalf of slave
descendants - to file charges of human rights violation against the government
of the United States of America during its Universal Periodic Review. Many have
already received a copy of that letter but new people are joining this effort
daily; I have added it to this communication so that everyone will be current
as we move forward.
I
will travel to
Thanks
for your interest.
Yours in unity and
solidarity,
John Burl Smith
The Honorable Alex Van Meeuwen
President UN Human Rights
Council
Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211
Honorable Sir:
Recently,
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton held a press briefing to announce
that the United States (US) was abandoning its head-in-the-sand approach to the
UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR). As you know, the
Bush administration boycotted the process and did not seek membership on the
council but participated only as an observer with no voting power. Bush claimed
countries with poor human rights records dominated the council. However, slave
descendants in the United States (US) believe Bush did not want blacks to have
a legitimate platform that would cause the
Secretary
of State Clinton opened her remarks with some sweeping generalizations
regarding human rights. "The idea of human rights begins with a
fundamental commitment to the dignity that is the birthright of every man,
woman and child. ... The principle that each person possesses equal moral value
is a simple, self-evident truth, but securing a world in which all can exercise
the rights that are naturally theirs is an immense practical challenge."
For
a fifth generation descendant of American slavery, these words do not match the
reality slave descendants face, even if Ms. Clinton is truly sincere in her
statement. First, black people in
This
section is the foundation of discrimination against slave descendants and the
underpinning of white privilege, as well as the entitlements they enjoy. The
3/5 Compromise was the basis for the Dred Scott
(1858) decision in which Chief Justice Roger B. Taney stated, "A black man
had no rights that a white man is bound to respect." Thus this ruling
became the precedent in Plessy v
Madam
Secretary boldly asserted, "Human rights are universal, but their
experience is local. This is why we are committed to holding everyone to the
same standard, including ourselves." The "local experiences" of
African Americans are tainted by racism, de-facto segregation and
discrimination, which is a legacy
It was as if Secretary Clinton was only looking outward in order to point a
finger when she said, "As we work to protect human rights at home and
abroad, we remember that human rights begin, as Eleanor Roosevelt said,
"in small places close to home." So when we work to secure human
rights, we are working to protect the experiences that make life meaningful, to
preserve each person's ability to fulfill his or her God-given potential - the
potential within every person to learn, discover and embrace the world around
them...."
Mrs.
Clinton seems to have forgotten that Mrs. Roosevelt lived during a time when
white men in the
Today,
whites say forget about all of that, it is behind us, we are a color blind
society now. However, some of the same community business leaders, politicians,
preachers, teachers, women and their children who were a part of segregation
and lynching are still in power. The system of legal discrimination erected
during segregation was never dismantled; whites just covered it over with words
like "equal opportunity employer," "fair housing" and
"affirmative action." The words today are "post racial" but
everyone adds, "We still have a long way to go!"
This
is because
Sir,
these so-called citizens are not blacks who are going to tell this story. They
are hand-picked to wave the stars and stripes at the UN. Economist Dot M. Smith
documented the relevance of the 3/5 Compromise today, so the complaints of
slave descendants are based on what is happening today not the past. Mrs. Smith
examined unemployment and median family income using US Labor Department data.
She found that the disparity between black and white unemployment and median
family income has remained remarkably stable over the last 50 years and the gap
between black and white median family incomes mimics the 3/5 Compromise.
Expressed in everyday economic terms, blacks are twice as likely to pay higher
interest rates, higher rent, more for less insurance, be the last hired and the
first fried, live in a substandard redlined community filled with predatory
businesses, liquor stores and fast food restaurants.
Obviously
Sir, this situation breeds poverty, desperation and crime. Facing a hostile
criminal justice system, even though blacks are only 13% of the
Michael
Posner, assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labor at the State
Department said, "Information gathered from the series of meeting will be
used in the 20-page report it plans to submit to the United Nations Human
Rights Council in November. It is inconceivable that Mrs. Clinton could hold
meetings around the
The genocide that has occurred in
Sir,
it is patently obvious that the
Respectfully,
John
Burl Smith, The Invaders
The
Dialogue on Race International Network (www.thedish.org)
HUMAN RIGHTS
PETITION ON BEHALF OF SLAVE DESCENDANTS LIVING IN THE
PRESENTED TO:
THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS
COUNCIL
OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH
COMMISSIONER
FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (OHCHR)
PRESIDENT UNITED NATION HUMAN
RIGHTS COUNCIL
THE HONORABLE ALEX VAN MEEUWEN
PALAIS DES NATIONS
CH-1211
WRITTEN BY:
JOHN BURL SMITH
EDITED BY:
DOROTHY M. SMITH
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The
completion of this petition is a posthumous recognition of the efforts of
several individuals -- Charles L. Cabbage, Richard L. Kirksey,
Dedrick "Teddy" Withers and Robert Dismukes -- who gave their support to this project at a
time when without their encouragement, insight and dedication to the concept of
black liberation this statement would not have been made.
There is but one way to know the truth,
and that is not a golden one. It is fraught with toil and sacrifice and perhaps
ridicule. The seeker of the truth must be fearless; he must not be afraid to
enter the innermost holies of holies, and to tear down the veils of
superstition that hang about any human and so-called divine institution. It is
the truth that makes men free. If the truth tears down every church and
government under the sun, let the truth be known and this truth only will be
known when men cease to swallow the capsules of ancient doctors of divinities
and politics; and when men begin to seek the truth in the records of history,
politics, religion, and science....
Charles Austin Beard, 1898
INTRODUCTION
The
history of slavery, segregation, mob violence, lynch law, discrimination,
disparate treatment and the hostile environment perpetrated against slave
descendants detailed here was done to produce the sense of "lack of
control" regarding their personal security. "Uncontrollability"
in such situations, creates extreme stress and anxiety within an individual
such that they become willing to do almost anything to relieve or escape the
situation. The theory of "learned helplessness" was developed by
Martin E. P. Seligman and his colleagues while studying the relationship
between fear and learning. These researchers discovered that animals exposed to
uncontrollable "shock" eventually stop trying to escape the shock.
[1] [2] [3] [4]
Seligman,
et al experimented with rats placed on electrified grids, then administered
electric shock without any means for the rat to terminate the shock.
Eventually, these rats stopped trying to avoid the shock, helplessly accepting
the pain; they simply endure the tortuous pain. Once animals reach this stage,
the experimenter introduced a means for the rats to terminate shock. This
allowed them to shape a desired behavior in the subjects. In other words, an
animal can be taught to perform tasks that are within its behavioral repertoire
that it does not normally perform.[1] [2] [3] [4] Research on prisoners of war
and torture victims support this thesis; "water boarding" and other
torture techniques utilize this principle. [5]
It
is not the severity or the duration of the painful event that is important, it
is the sense of the lack of control in the situation that matters. The use of
uncontrollability was the key to producing an expectation of racism in slave
descendants. The inability to control anything, the lack of control over their
bodies, knowing one's mate or children could be sold at any moment and that
they could do nothing about it was a constant source of uncontrollable stress
and anxiety for slaves. Consequently, slaves and their descendants learned that
compliance was their only hope of surviving in a world in which they had no
control. Blacks were taught to expect abuse, discrimination, disparate
treatment and to accept it in order to avoid murder, mayhem or other equally
painful experiences.
When
told from the perspective of slave descendants rather than others, the story of
racism and racial discrimination in
The
most personal connection one has is their name; the slave master took that
away. Slaves could not speak their language, tribal identification symbols were
forbidden and the family structure was destroyed. The most dehumanizing aspect
of this process was that slaves were bred like cows or horses - siblings were
mated together, even mothers with sons and fathers with daughters. The utter
brutality and pain -- physical and mental -- inflicted upon slaves were to
create a mind-set devoid of any sense of personal security. They could be sold
at the whim of their master. A slave was at the mercy of any white person
because whites exercised the power of life and death. [6] [7]
This
lack of a sense of security is as real today for slave descendants as it was
for their ancestors. At any given moment across the United States (US),
thousands of blacks experience acts of racism - subtle and overt. Blacks that
confront racism directly are accused of playing the "race card." Yet,
the likelihood of an experience with racism from verbal abuse up to and
including being killed during routine encounters with police are almost
guaranteed, if one is black. Any screwball explanation will suffice for a jury;
even though six well-trained officers had the suspect on the ground in
handcuffs with one sitting on his chest, he is shot to death for failure to
stop struggling or because one of the officers felt threatened. White people do
not die at the hands of police in this manner, even if the white man attacked
the police, fled the scene and was apprehended during a high speed chase.
The
expectation of racism is a social psychological condition created in
A
new millennium has dawned and the world is experiencing the greatest surge in
knowledge, technology and industrial innovation ever witnessed by man. Communications
have real time applications anywhere in the world; yet, slave descendants
living in the
The
unfolding of the Nuremberg Trials following WWII gave the world pause while
fully grasping the specter of human beings having been treated so inhumanely.
Humanity reached a turning point after those trials and world leaders concluded
that "all people are deserving of certain basic human rights and that the
denial of those rights for any people is a crime against all humanity."
The birth of the United Nations was viewed as a means of creating mechanisms
and institutions that could monitor nations' compliance with human rights
principles.
Some
human rights violations are very obvious and easily spotted, such as those
judged at the Nuremberg Trials, but others are very subtle, hiding beneath
protective coverings in affluent democratic societies. These violations
masquerade as social conventions, religious customs, economic necessity, state
prerogatives and so forth. Such situations serve as barriers to keep the poor
and powerless at bay and to keep the rich and powerful in control of such
societies.
Voices
of the poor and powerless, if heard, are never heeded in the power centers of
the world. Yet, the ever increasing calls for democratization by Western
governments brought into the UN more and more nations, whose people's voices
were once silenced by oppressive governments. During the 1990s this critical
mass began to raise issues regarding these subtle forms of human rights violations
and the first World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) was held in
Still
comfortably wrapped in its 1789 mind-set about slave descendants, the
Responding
to that change, this petition is being submitted to the Human Rights Council
for consideration and evaluation during the Universal Periodic Review of the
Here
in plaintiffs provide a chronology of events that represents the unbroken
legacy of murder, mayhem and terror perpetrated against slaves and their
descendants by whites to create the expectation of racism, while the
Throughout
Reconstruction, the Progressive Era and Jim Crow segregation whites fought
continually to deny slave descendants equal access to the benefits of freedom.
During these periods whites used organized terror through groups, such as the
Ku Klux Klan, White League and Red Shirts, to intimidate blacks, while state
and local governments disenfranchised them by abrogating the 15th
Amendment. A compliant
De
jure racial segregation, although it began in the
South, became a national effort that controlled the lives of slave descendants,
including denying them the right to vote. The turn of the century brought
increasing mob violence with large scale white massacres of blacks, sometimes
whole towns and communities were burned and the people slaughtered like
animals. It was these times that the federal government turned blind eyes and
deaf ears to the plight of slave descendants, who lived under the terror of
lynch law and at the mercy of white mob rule. The expectation of racist
behavior on the part of whites took firm roots in this atmosphere and continued
to be nourished through US government actions.
The
history of the
Article
I Section II of the US Constitution, which is the Three-Fifths Compromise,
created the "double bind" of civil rights and for former slaves and
their descendants it has been a catch- 22. So-called conservative justices on
the Supreme Court use Article I Section II of the US Constitution to justify
what they claim is a "strict" interpretation of civil rights bills,
challenges to segregation and other rights granted blacks under the 14th
Amendment. A "strict" interpretation of the Constitution reintroduces
Plessy v
Resistance
to Brown was quick and swift. It drew the strongest opposition from Southern
politicians. They drew the battle lines with the Southern Manifesto and fought
several trench battles with the federal government, looking for ways to weaken
Brown. Their big break came in 1974 in Bakke v
Today,
the expectation of racism is such an automatic psychological response from
slave descendants to the unconscious racist behavior of whites that efforts to
achieve equality between blacks and whites have been all but abandoned by the
SLAVERY: A
LEGACY
The
woeful story of genocide, brutality, discrimination and other human rights
violations that produced the expectation of racism in slave descendants living
in the
The
issue was settled by what became known as the "Great or Three-Fifths
Compromise." States would be represented in the lower house in proportion
to their population, and Three-Fifths of the slaves would be counted in
determining the basis for both representation and direct taxation. This formula
was based on the democratic notion of one man one vote for all white men.
Slaves were considered less than human and given a value less than one (3/5 or
.6). Another part of the Three-Fifths Compromise provided that in the upper
house (Senate), the states would be represented
equally with two members apiece. The Constitution also forbade Congress from
banning the slave trade before 1808. (Note: It also provided that the President
be elected via the Electoral College... a mechanism based on the 3/5 Compromised)[6][7][26]
Eli
Whitney's invention of the cotton gin (1793) made slavery indispensable to
Southern planters and a federal fugitive slave law was passed in 1793 that
provided for the return of slaves who escaped.[8] The
entrenched nature of slavery as the base of Southern society, its ever growing
cruelty and the yearn for freedom by slaves became a volatile mixture as the
last decade of the 1700s closed. Gabriel Prosser, a slave and blacksmith,
organized what is believed to be the first major attempt at a slave revolt in
1800. His plan was to take
The
growing economic and political power of the South led to efforts to limit the
spread of slavery by Northerners with The Missouri Compromise (1820), which
banned slavery north of the southern boundary of
Sounding
an alarm to slave and free blacks alike, David Walker's Appeal in Four Articles: Together with a Preamble,
to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in
Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America
exploded like cannon fire in 1829. Born to a free mother and an enslaved father
in
Former
slaves and free blacks, such as Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and Harriet
Tubman, joined with whites, like Elijah Lovejoy, Dr.
David Nelson, Susan B. Anthony and many others, to prick the conscience of the
people and force the nation to face the horrors of slavery. [9][11][13] [15]
They became known as abolitionist. William Lloyd Garrison began publishing a
weekly newspaper called the Liberator in 1831 that advocated the complete
abolition of slavery.[12] Harriet Tubman, a runaway
slave, returned to the South to lead other slaves to freedom on what was called
the Underground Railroad. She
made more than one hundred trips.
Another
in a long line of piecemeal decisions to try and control the spread of slavery,
the Compromise of 1850, ended the debate over whether territory gained in the
Mexican War should be open to slavery. California was admitted as a free state,
while Utah and New Mexico territories were decided by popular sovereignty and
the slave trade was finally prohibited in the nation's Capitol, Washington, DC.
More importantly, it granted slave catchers greater authority under the
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. [17][26]
The
next ten years set the
The
repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854),
which established the territories of
John
Brown had led fighting to keep slavery out of
THE CIVIL WAR and RECONSTRUCTION
Abraham
Lincoln was elected 16th President of the
The
Reconstruction Era covered the period from 1863 to 1877 and in many ways began
a transformation that is still ongoing for the descendants of the Freedmen. It
is ironic that even though whites never were completely dislodged as leaders
and were able to quickly recapture power, the world they recaptured was not the
one they lost and the one they regained required them to fight their former
slaves continually to deny them equality.
President
Abraham Lincoln set up reconstructed governments in several southern states
during the Civil War, including
Ulysses
S. Grant became the 18th President of the
White
Southerners pursued the enactment of laws that disenfranchised blacks as the
means of maintaining power. Black Codes -- laws allowing only limited
second-class civil rights, no voting rights, and, since blacks were not citizens,
they could not own firearms, serve on a jury in lawsuits involving whites or
move about without employment - were another tactic used to control blacks.
Reports that described the oppressive conditions of the Freedmen in the South
painted a very desperate picture of blacks at the mercy of blood thirsty white
gangs. Carl Schurz, who reported on the situation in
the states along the
In
Ratification
of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments is the most enduring legacy of the
Reconstruction Era. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery. The 14th Amendment
guaranteed citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the
Following
the contentious election of 1876, President Rutherford B. Hayes adopted a
"let alone" policy toward the South. Hayes removed federal troops
from the South and Reconstruction ended, leaving former slaves to fend for themselves. Most historians look upon Reconstruction as a
failure. W. E. B. DuBois captured that sentiment well
when he wrote in Black Reconstruction in
America (1935): "The slaves went free; stood a brief moment in
the sun; then moved back again toward slavery."[18] Later, Eric Foner concluded that from the point of view of slaves and
their descendants, "Reconstruction must be judged a failure. The many
factors contributing to this failure include: lack of a permanent federal
agency specifically designed for the enforcement of civil rights; the Morrison
R. Waite Supreme Court decisions that dismantled previous congressional civil
rights legislation; and the economic reestablishment of conservative white
planters in the South by 1877."[22][23]
JIM CROW and ECONOMIC SLAVERY
The
term Jim Crow describes federal, state and local laws enacted in the
Ironically,
the period from the1890s through the 1920s is called the Progressive Era, but
for slave descendants, it represents the beginning of a backward slide down a
slippery slope into conditions just above the bond slavery their ancestors
endured. Although Jim Crow is presented as a Southern phenomenon, its context
and reach were national. An example is the presidential election of 1912, which
was steeply slanted against the interests of black Americans. Most blacks were
still living in the South, where they had been effectively disfranchised, so
they could not vote at all.
The
imposition of poll taxes and literacy requirements effectively banned many
Americans from voting. However, these stipulations frequently had loopholes
that exempted white Americans from meeting the requirements. Typical, Southern
states had "grandfather clauses," which were laws that allowed anyone
qualified to vote before 1866, or related to someone qualified to vote before
1866, was exempted from the literacy requirement. Sardonically, only white men
could vote before 1866, which meant white men were effectively excluded from
the literacy testing, whereas all black men were subject to the test.[33][34]
Such
Jim Crow legislation, as "grandfather clauses," quietly
disenfranchised Southern Negroes by requiring prospective voters to show proof
of land ownership or take literacy tests at polling stations. Most blacks were
for the most part uneducated former slaves often leasing land from their former
owners,[6][7] this disqualified them, immediately
depriving them of their constitutionally guaranteed right granted by the 15th
Amendment to vote. Black politicians who had achieved brief political success
during the Reconstruction era lost their voters thereby losing their political
position.
Historian
Rogers Smith wrote about disenfranchisement, "White lawmakers frequently
admitted, indeed boasted, that such measures as complex registration rules,
literacy and property tests, poll taxes, white primaries and grandfather
clauses were designed to produce an electorate confined to a white race that
declared itself supreme, notably rejecting the 13th, 14th
and 15th Amendments to the American Constitution." [11][57]
This mind-set contributed to 58 more years of legalized discrimination against
blacks in the
Motivated
by economic competition for industrial jobs, mostly between whites and southern
blacks, who were often used as strikebreakers, racial disturbances erupted in
numerous cities throughout the
"Mrs.
Mary Howard said, the street cars ran right along in front of her house, and
she saw white women stop the street cars and pull black women off and beat
them. One woman's clothes they tore off entirely, and then they took off their
shoes and beat her over the face and head with their shoe heels. Another woman
with every stitch of clothes torn off her back, leaving her with only her shoes
and stocking on as she ran down the street, trying to get away. Mrs. Howard saw
two men beaten to death. They were kicked and stamped on and beaten till they
knocked their teeth from their heads and killed them.
Dozens
of men who saw soldiers standby and do nothing, loudly proclaimed, "The
Illinois National Guard was alright." Another white newspaper said, "Boys
13, 14, 15 and 16 were in the forefront of every felonious
butchery. Girls and women, wielding bloody knives and clawed at the eyes
of dying victims, sprang from the ranks of the mad thousands."
Another
eyewitness, Mr. Carlos F. Hurd of St. Louis, Mo., a
white staff reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on July 3, 1917 wrote,
"For an hour and a half on July 2,1917, I saw the massacre of helpless
Negroes at Broadway and Fourth street, in downtown East St. Louis, where a
black skin was a death warrant. I saw man after man, with hands raised,
pleading for his life, surrounded by groups of men; men who had never seen them
before and knew nothing about them except that they were black; and saw them
administer the historic sentence of intolerance, death by stoning.
One
of these men, almost dead from a savage shower of stones, was hanged with a
clothes line, and when it broke, hanged with a rope. Within a few spaces of the
pole from which he was suspended, four other Negroes lay dead or dying, another
had been removed dead, a short time before.[36]
The
following stories were told to Mrs. Ida B. Wells after she met with Illinois
Governor Frank O. Bowden on July 9,1917. He told her
to return to
John
Avant said, he was with
about twenty-five other Negroes sitting or standing in a restaurant where they
usually ate, when six soldiers and four or five policemen suddenly shot up the
place, wounding five and killing one.
This
was just a small part of the horror of the racial massacre which occurred on
July 2-10. It's estimated that over 200 African Americans were killed, 4,000
wounded and 6,000 African Americans were driven from their homes, which were
indiscriminately burned. All the impartial witnesses agreed that the police
were indifferent or encouraged the barbarities, and that the major part of the
Illinois National Guard was indifferent or participated. No organized effort
was made to protect Negroes or disperse the murdering groups. Illinois Governor
Frank O. Bowden ordered the National Guard out of the city on July 10th,
leaving residents of
The
government maintained a "look the other way" policy as long as those
being slaughtered were black, no matter where the mayhem occurred. Refusing to
protect citizens based on their skin color is a gross violation of their human
rights and is tantamount to state sponsored murder.
Two
years later, during the "Red Summer in 1919," racial mob violence
motivated by competition for jobs and housing from returning WWI veterans of
both races, and the arrival of waves of new immigrants. [38], erupted in 26
cities--including Chicago, Omaha, and Washington D.C.[43] The Red Summer was
stained with the blood of blacks, as race riots occurred across the country,
leaving hundreds dead and countless more dispossessed and homeless. Beginning
in mid-summer (1919), racial tensions, fueled by a poor post-WWI economy,
stronger Jim Crow laws, lynching in the South, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan,
and growing long-standing hatred of blacks by whites surged as the US government
did nothing to quail the unrest before it began exploding into full-scale race
riots in Little Rock, New York City, Baltimore, New Orleans, Houston, and a
number of other cities in both the North and the South.
It
is usually considered that the worst incidents took place in Chicago,
Washington, D.C., and Elaine, Arkansas.[38][39][40][41] The lid blew off in
Washington, where at least 24 people were killed from July 19-24, after rumors
spread that a black man had assaulted the wife of a white sailor. A mob of
approximately 400 whites invaded the black section of town, where they attacked
blacks indiscriminately. When the police arrived, they began arresting blacks
rather than whites. However, the white mobs were surprised when blacks fought
back. Once it became clear that the police would not protect them, black
veterans unpacked their service revolvers and other blacks rushed to pawnshops
and brought a record number of guns. After four days of rioting, a heavy
downpour flooded the city and drowned the rage. [37]
A
few days later, on July 27, 1919, at
Blood
continued to flow throughout the summer of 1919 with the most notorious and
horrific incident unfolding in Elaine,
The
Elaine,
THE PRESIDENT LED: SEGREGATION and LYNCHING
FOLLOWED
Racism
in
According
to social historian Michael J. Pfeifer, "The United States had two
parallel systems of 'justice,' one legal (through the courts) and the other
illegal. Both were racially polarized and both operated to enforce white
supremacy."[88][89] Journalist and anti-lynching crusader, Ida B. Wells
wrote, "Black victims of lynchings were accused of rape or attempted rape
only about one-third of the time. The most prevalent accusation was murder or
attempted murder, followed by a list of infractions that included verbal and
physical aggression, spirited business competition and independence of mind.
The aim of white lynch mobs was to restore the perceived social imbalance.
Lynching was "mob rule' that usually led to murder by whites.
Law-enforcement authorities usually participated directly or held suspects in
jail until a mob formed to carry out the murder."[38][45] It is essential
to understand this process clearly to fully grasp the
fact that the
The
sheer volume of acts of public killings, which amounted to federal, state and
local government sanctioned murder, is mind boggling when one considers not a
single white individual has ever been tried and convicted of participating in
the lynching of a black person.[45] The revival of
white supremacy was completed during the 1890s with the institution of Jim Crow
laws that disenfranchised blacks and cemented white hold on power. Lynching
records at Tuskegee Institute document that there were 4,730 lynching victims
between 1882 and 1968; 3,437 were black and 1,293 white. More than 85 percent
of all lynchings in the post-Civil War period occurred in Southern states.
During 1892, a peak year, 161 Negroes were lynched. During the period from 1889
to 1923, there were 50-100 lynchings annually across the South. Terror and
lynching were the means by which whites reinforced both formal laws and a
variety of unwritten rules of conduct for blacks which asserted white
domination and buttressed the expectation of racism in the minds of
Negroes.[41][45]
Lynching
not only reflected the tensions of labor and social changes, it entrenched
legal segregation and white supremacy. In the state of
Anecdotally,
in the 1950s, a writer for the Time
noted that "At the turn of the 20th century in the
Lynchings
in some instances were mass extinction as in
Two
such notable incidents,
Prior
to the turn of the century, O.W Gurley, a wealthy African American land-owner
from
Traveling
by wagons, horseback, trains, and even on foot, many African Americans moved to
The
community whites called "Little Africa" became known as
During
the oil boom of the 1910s, the area around
One
of the most appalling acts of racial violence in the nation's history -- the
Tulsa Race Riot -- occurred on June 1, 1921, when 35 square blocks of homes and
businesses were torched by mobs of racist whites. The riot began typically with
an alleged assault of a white woman by a black man. The Tulsa Tribune published
details of the alleged assault on May 31, 1921. A white lynch mob prepared to
take the black man out of jail. [52][53]
US
Army units were deployed on the afternoon of June 1, but the army was
segregated as the rest of the
Mr.
O.W. Gurley, leader of the
Extrajudicial
violence was so common in the
This
was the atmosphere surrounding Rosewood, a community of 355 people on January
1, 1923. Until rumors circulated widely that a white woman in nearby Sumner had
been beaten and possibly raped by a black drifter, Rosewood was a quiet,
primarily black, self-sufficient whistle-stop along the Seaboard Air Line
Railway. An inflammatory charge in the South, within hours white men from
nearby towns lynched a Rosewood resident. Black citizens defended themselves
against further attack, but the mob of several hundred whites began combing the
countryside, hunting for isolated black people, burning almost every structure
in Rosewood. [55]
Maintaining
white supremacy was a function of state government, and governors were in the loop
during the planning or response when white mob violence occurred. Governor Cary
Harden waited for the sheriff of
Although
rioting was widely reported around the country, few official records documented
these events. Despite nationwide news coverage in both white and black
newspapers once such massive acts of mob violence occurred, the incidents
slipped into oblivion and were lost to history. Survivors, their descendants
and the perpetrators remained silent about Rosewood for decades. Sixty years
after the massacre, the story of Rosewood was revived by the media when several
journalists heard the story in the early 1980s. The massacre was the subject of
a 1997 film directed by John Singleton. [54]
Once
the massacre was made public, survivors told stories of mass graves and claimed
there may have been upwards of 50 black residents killed. The armed standoff
attracted white men from all over the state of
CIVIL RIGHTS
Former
slaves and their descendants have been trapped in the "double bind"
of civil rights since the adoption of Article I Section II of the US
Constitution which contains the Three-Fifths Compromise. The duplicitous logic
that gave birth to this constitutional abomination allows the
It
is instructive to follow the "give-then-take-back" process of civil
rights to clearly understand the "double bind" that has prevented
slave descendants from making any permanent progress toward equality in the
Prior
to Emancipation and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that gave the Freedmen full
legal equality, the Supreme Court denied any claim of rights by a slave. The
Civil Rights Act of 1875 stipulated a guarantee that everyone, regardless of
race, color, or previous condition of servitude, was entitled to the same
treatment in public accommodations, such as inns, public transportation,
theaters, and other places of recreation. However, the US Supreme Court
declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional in some respects in
1883, ruling that "Congress did not have the right to control private
persons or corporations." The Supreme Court, in effect, gutted the
Fourteenth Amendment.[62] The Court ruled that the
Fourteenth Amendment applied only to "the actions of government, not to
those of private individuals, and consequently it did not protect persons
against individuals or private entities who violated their civil rights."
In particular, the Court invalidated most of the Civil Rights Act of 1875,
returning blacks to the state described by Justice Tandy in his infamous Dred Scott ruling.
The
court took an entirely different tact in a case involving an 1890
Plessy
bought a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railway (1892). Once he
boarded the train, he informed the train conductor of his racial lineage and
took a seat in the whites-only car. He was directed to leave that car and sit
instead in the "colors only" car. Plessy
refused and was immediately arrested. The Citizens Committee of New Orleans
fought the case all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States but lost
in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).[59]
Justice
John Marshall Harlan, a former slave owner who decried the excesses of the Ku
Klux Klan, wrote a scathing dissent in which he predicted the court's decision
would become as infamous as that in Dred Scott v. Sandford. Harlan's dissent registered concerns about the
encroachment on the 14th Amendment which proved well founded as states benefited
from instituting segregation law that entrenched the Jim Crow system. [92]
"We shall enter upon an era of constitutional law, when the rights of
freedom and American citizenship cannot receive from the nation that efficient
protection which heretofore was unhesitatingly accorded to slavery and the
rights of the master."[60]
The
case helped cement the legal foundation for the doctrine of "separate but
equal," the idea that segregation based on classifications was legal as
long as facilities were of equal quality. However, Southern state governments
refused to provide blacks with genuinely equal facilities and resources in the
years after the Plessy decision. The states not only
separated races but, in actuality, ensured differences in quality. [57][58][60][61]
Plessy
legitimized the move towards segregation practices begun earlier in the South.
Delivered the previous year, Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise address,
along with Plessy, provided an impetus for further
segregation laws. Legislative achievements won during the Reconstruction Era
and through Civil Rights Acts were erased by the "separate but equal"
doctrine.[92] The previous Supreme Court decision in 1883 justified limiting
the scope of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which forbade the federal government
from intervening "to restrain states from acts of racial discrimination
and segregation."[62] The ruling basically granted states legislative
immunity from congressional power when dealing with questions of race. Plessy v.
The
effect was immediate as noted through significant racial differences in
educational funding in the late 1890s that proved enormous by the 20th century.
States which had previously successfully integrated elements of their society
abruptly adopted oppressive legislation that erased reconstruction era efforts.
An example of this is the state of
BROWN v. BOARD of EDUCATION
The
history of the
William
Rehnquist, who became Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court in 1973, wrote a
memo called A Random Thought on the
Segregation Cases when he was a law clerk in 1952, during early
deliberations that led to the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In his
memo, Rehnquist argued that "I realize that it is an unpopular and unhumanitarian position, for which I have been excoriated
by 'liberal' colleagues but I think Plessy v.
Families
in the City of Topeka, Kansas filed a class action suit against the Board of
Education in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas in
1951. The plaintiffs were thirteen
The
plaintiff, Oliver L. Brown, an African American, whose daughter Linda, a third
grader, had to walk six blocks to her school bus stop to ride to her segregated
black school one mile (1.6 km) away, Monroe Elementary. Conversely, Sumner
Elementary, a white school, was seven blocks from her house. [8][9] Brown had
attempted to enroll his child in the closest neighborhood school in the fall of
1951.[66]
The
District Court ruled in favor of the Board of Education, citing the U.S.
Supreme Court precedent set in Plessy v. Ferguson.[69] The three-judge District Court panel found that
segregation in public education has a detrimental effect upon Negro children,
but denied relief on the ground that the Negro and white schools in Topeka were
substantially equal with respect to buildings, transportation, curricular, and
educational qualifications of teachers.[70]
The
case of Brown v. Board of Education was not the only case in the
Appointed
to replace deceased Chief Justice Fred M.Vinson in
September 1953 by President Eisenhower, Earl Warren convened a meeting of the
justices and presented to them the simple argument that the only reason to sustain
segregation was an honest belief in the inferiority of Negroes.
The
key holding of the Court was that, even if segregated black and white schools
were of equal quality in facilities and teachers, segregation by itself was
harmful to black students and unconstitutional. They found that a significant
psychological and social disadvantage accured to
black children from the nature of segregation itself. This aspect was vital
because the question was not whether the schools were "equal," which
under Plessy they nominally should have been, but
whether the doctrine of separate was constitutional. The justices answered with
a strong "no":
Does segregation of children in public schools, solely on the basis of race,
even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may
be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational
opportunities? We believe that it does... [59][62]
Segregation
of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon
the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the
law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting
the inferiority of the Negro group. Again, the inferiority that is mentioned
here is the same notion expressed by Chief Justice Tandy in his infamous Dred Scott ruling. A sense of inferiority affects the
motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law,
therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of
Negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive
in a racial[ly] integrated school system...[62][67]
We
conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate
but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently
unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated
for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation
complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the
Fourteenth Amendment.[66][67][68][70]
It had become apparent in 1954 that segregation was an anathema to equality.
There was no way to continue to pretend that the physical facilities provided
for blacks were comparable to those provided whites, which had been
demonstrated in a long series of cases.[62][66][67] The Court was faced with
either abandoning the quest for equality by allowing segregation to continue
unabated or to forbid segregation in order to achieve equality. [68][69][70]
History had proven equality and segregation are mutually exclusive, regardless
of the Constitution's framers' intent. Segregation was an educational process
to reinforce in the mind of slave descendants that they were of a lesser value
than whites, so they should expect to receive less.
The
Almost
immediately after the decision in Brown v. Board of Education, before the ink
was fully dry on the paper, it was obvious not everyone accepted the decision.
US Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. of Virginia organized a massive resistance
movement that included closing schools rather than desegregating them.[28]
Governors across the South signed the Southern Manifesto, which was a document
written in February-March 1956 by legislators in the United States Congress
opposed to racial integration in public places.[72][62] The manifesto was
signed by 101 politicians (99 Democrats and 2 Republicans) from Alabama,
Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.[72]
Written
by US Sen. Strom Thurmond of
Alabama
Gov. George Wallace personally blocked the door to Foster Auditorium at the
Both
scholarly and popular ideas of scientific racism -- denotes theories that
employ anthropology -- notably physical anthropology anthropometry, craniometry, and other disciplines to fabricate
anthropologic typologies to classify human populations into physically discrete
human races, with Caucasians at the top of a racial hierarchy, played an
important role in the attack and backlash that followed the Brown decision.[69]
The intellectual roots of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896),
the landmark US Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of
racial segregation under the doctrine of "separate but equal," were,
in part, tied to scientific racism of that era.[57][61] However, the popular
support for Plessy was more likely a result of the
racist beliefs held by many whites at the time.[59] In deciding Brown v. Board
of Education as it did, the Supreme Court rejected scientific racists' claims
about the need for segregation, especially in schools.
The
Southern Manifesto provided for a unified credo for those resisting Brown, as
Southerners fought integration in the streets and in the courts. The general
strategy was to do the same as the South had done following the Civil War,
which was to wear the federal government down. This strategy had its greatest
impact in the courts where there were many judges who were die-hard
segregationists. [72]
REVERSE DISCRIMINATION
Southern
states and local governments litigated all attempts at integrating or breaking
down racial barriers. Their first real success came in Bakke
v University of California (1978).[73] Allan Bakke, a
white male, applied to University of California, Davis School of Medicine in
1973 and 1974 but was rejected in both years, although "special
applicants" were admitted with significantly lower academic scores than Bakke. These admissions were designed to make up for past
discrimination against blacks and other minorities. These special applicants
were admitted under provisions either for members of a "minority
group" (such as blacks or Hispanics), or as "economically and/or
educationally disadvantaged." Although many disadvantaged Caucasians had
applied under this second provision, none had been successful. In 1974, in
particular, the special admissions committee explicitly stated they would
consider only candidates who were from explicitly designated minority groups. [73]
After
his second rejection, Bakke filed an action in state court
for mandatory injunctive and declaratory relief to compel his admission to
The
trial court found that the special program operated as a racial quota, because
minority applicants in that program were rated only against one another, and 16
places in the class of 100 were reserved for them. Declaring that UC Davis
Medical School could not take race into account in making admissions decisions,
the court declared the program violated the Federal and State Constitutions and
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The court did not order Bakke's admission, however, because there was no proof at
trial that he would have been admitted but for the special program. [95]
Applying
a "strict scrutiny" standard, the California Supreme Court concluded
that the special admissions program was not the least intrusive means of
achieving the goals of the admittedly compelling state interests of integrating
the medical facility and increasing the number of doctors willing to serve
minority patients. Without passing on the state constitutional or federal
statutory grounds, the court held that UC Davis Medical School's special
admissions program violated the Equal Protection Clause. Because the
The
issue before the Court was twofold: 1. Whether Bakke's
exclusion from consideration in UC Davis Medical School's special admission
program for minorities because he was white was unconstitutional and a
violation of section VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and 2. if it was
unconstitutional, should UC Davis Medical School be required to admit him.[66]
It
is important to note that there were two opposing 4-person plurality opinions
and then Justice Powell's which yielded the 5-4 decisions. Each of the 4-person
plurality opinions concurred only with parts of Justice Powell's opinion and
not the same parts. Justices Brennan, White, Marshall and Blackman concluded in
one plurality opinion that race could be used as a factor when it was for the
purpose of remedying substantial chronic under representation of certain
minorities in the medical profession (past discrimination). Chief Justice
Burger, Justice Stewart and Rehnquist joined Justice Stevens' view that whether
race could ever be a factor was not at issue in the case, but that the special
admissions program under consideration violated Title VI because it excluded
from consideration an applicant on the basis of race. [86] This decision
ignored the fact that race had been the basis of excluding blacks and this
remedy was designed to address the harm done blacks. Without such remedies,
blacks could never close the gap past discrimination caused. [73]
Justice
Powell concluded that though race could not be the basis for excluding a
candidate, race may be one of many factors in admissions considerations.
Therefore, though there was no clear-cut majority view on using race as a
factor in general, there was a 5-4 split in which the majority (the Stevens
plurality and Powell) agreed that the UC Davis Special admissions program was
unconstitutional because it excluded applicants on the basis of race. Similarly
the same 5-4 split concurred that UC Davis be required to admit Bakke.[73][74] This is the crux of the civil rights
"double bind" for slave descendants. Race was the only basis for
excluding blacks from white institutions for over 140 years, but the Bakke decision removed race as the basis for fashioning a
remedy to address that discrimination. This ruling became the precedent for
"reverse discrimination" which has all but eliminated making up for
past discrimination.
Powell's
opinion stated that quotas insulated minority applicants from competition with
regular applicants and were thus unconstitutional because they discriminated
against non-minority applicants. Thus Powell ties quotas to affirmative action,
thereby undercutting efforts designed to address "all deliberate speed"
ordered by the court to correct past discrimination.[67][85] Powell, however,
continues the "double bind" trap of civil rights by holding out the
hope of some remedy, stating that "universities could use race as a plus
factor." He cited the Harvard College Admissions Program, which was filed as an amicus curiae, as an example of a constitutionally
valid affirmative action program which took into account all of an applicant's
qualities including race in a "holistic review."[73][87
Title
VI of the civil rights statute prohibits racial discrimination in any
institution that receives federal funding. Justices Burger, Stewart, Rehnquist
and Stevens supported a "strict interpretation" and, thus, ruled in
favor of Bakke. Justices Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, and White, however, disagreed with a "rigid
and literal" interpretation of Title VI.. The
nature of this split opinion created controversy over whether Powell's opinion
was binding.[73] However, in 2003, in Grutter v.
Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, the Supreme Court
affirmed Powell's opinion, rejecting "quotas", but allowing race to
be one "factor" in college admissions to meet the compelling interest
of diversity.[94][95]
The
Supreme Court in moving away from Brown v Board of Education, which addressed
past discrimination against slave descendants, with the Bakke
ruling created a compelling need for "diversity," which eliminated
the need to make up for and address past discrimination against slave
descendants.[67] The Court took a turn that allowed it to introduce other
minorities whose past were very dissimilar from slave descendants.[85][87]
Diversity may be a desirable, even compelling need in regards to
discrimination, but such discrimination should not be co-mingled when
considering remedies to address what happened to blacks. Slave descendants are
the only people in the
The
lasting impact of the Bakke decision, like Dred Scott and Plessy, opened the
door for piling on narrowly constructed precedence to end efforts to extend
equality to descendants of slaves, which was what efforts to make up for past
discrimination against blacks was intended to do.[86] This case turned the
process on its head by viewing it from the position of "discrimination
against a non-minority" rather than remembering the nearly one hundred
forty years blacks had been denied entrance to colleges solely on the basis of
race.
Bakke
led to the foundation of the doctrine of "reversed discrimination,"
which came out of Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Mineta, 169 534 US 103, 109 (2001) and Adarand
Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, 515 U.S. 200, 115 S.Ct.
2097, 132 L.Ed.2d 158 (1995). These cases are another series of tortured
decisions that helped build precedence for "reverse discrimination."
When the US Constitution was adopted, white males commanded 100 percent of the
vote. And, this translated directly into economic advantages for white men in a
number of ways. First, they could devise laws that gave them economic privileges,
like slavery, the ability to disenfranchise slave descendants and use
segregation to further entrench themselves. Second, they could vote to spend
100 percent of public funds on themselves. [85] Thus, giving blacks the right
to vote meant giving them a much larger slice of the economic pie. Abolishing
slavery had the same effect. The gains blacks made were at the proportional
expense of white males, just as discrimination allowed white males to ensconce
themselves atop society.
It
has come down to this today; the US Supreme Court using precedents built on
"reverse discrimination" has established the proposition that
"it is unconstitutional to do anything to increase equality for blacks at
the expense of white males." In other words,
Reverse
discrimination implies that at some point slave descendants actually achieved
equal status with whites and the gap caused by the 144 years of slavery and the
147 years of Jim Crow segregation and institutionalized racism was completely
eliminated by the
The
US Supreme Court cases upon which reverse discrimination is built are
fallacious propositions, no different than those that supported Dred Scott and Plessy v Ferguson
which were trumped up justifications for white supremacy. Reverse
discrimination makes civil rights a farce and as long as slave descendants try
to achieve equality through civil rights, they will always be trapped in the
"double bind" of second class citizenship.[67][85][86][87]
THE FIGHT for HUMAN RIGHTS
Slave
descendants have tried to reach out and tell their particular story to the
world but have been muted, if not silenced altogether by the
Prior
to the twentieth century, leaders such as Prince Hall, Martin Delany, Edward Wilmot Blyden, and
Henry Highland Garnet advocated involvement of the African diaspora
in African affairs. Garvey was unique in advancing a Pan-African philosophy
that inspired a global mass movement which focused on Africa.[76] The intention
of the movement was for those of African ancestry to "redeem" Africa
and for the European colonial powers to leave it.
Garvey's
essential ideas about
Amongst
the auxiliary components of UNIA were the Universal African Legion, a
paramilitary group; the African Black Cross Nurses; African Black Cross Society;
the Universal African Motor Corps; the Black Eagle Flying Corps; the Black Star
Steamship Line; the Black Cross Trading and Navigation Corporation; as well as
the Negro Factories Corporation. By 1920 the association had over 1,100
divisions in more than 40 countries. Most of the divisions were located in the
Again
as with David Walker, the
Disgraced,
Garvey was deported, ending another effort by slave descendants to develop
independence and wealth; crushed by the
During
the 1960s, the teachings of The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation
of Islam served as an incubator. Producing not only strategic thinkers, it
became the spring board for some of the most dynamic black leaders during the
civil rights/black power era.[80] Moreover, like Garvey's movement, The Most
Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam were targets of many FBI
plots, none more infamous than the assassination of Malcolm X (El Hajji Malik Shabazz).[81]
Ron
Daniels, wrote in Beyond Fad and Fashion:
Understanding the Essence of Malcolm X (8-29-99), "From my
vantage point, the transformation from Malcolm Little/"Detroit Red"
to Malcolm X/El Hajji Malik Shabazz
stands as a testimony to the possibilities of an individual and a people to
rise above their oppression in the struggle for liberation. Malcolm's continued
capacity for growth and development, his unflinching commitment to African
people and oppressed humanity, and his courageous, selfless service to his
people, even in the face of death, are the hallmarks of Malcolm's
character."[96]
The
question regarding "fad or fashion" has been answered by the enduring
power of his legacy. It is clear, Malcolm's rhetoric stirred the soul of slave
descendants at a time when most quiescently slumbered waiting for the day when
whites in
Malcolm
X addressed the same "patience acceptance" blacks showed in the 1950s
toward their second class status as David Walker attacked regarding slaves in
his Appeal in Four Articles: Together
with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the
World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of
America in 1829. Malcolm also caused the same kind of reaction from
whites
After
traveling to
Malcolm
explained that blacks needed to take the
Marcus
Garvey, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. shared a common connection of
which few people are aware. They all were victims of FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover, who was the federal government's point man in efforts to discredit them
and manage the cover-up of their assassinations.
This
meeting took place in Dr. King's room, where
Less than two hours later, Dr. King was shot dead just outside the room in
which he held the meeting with the Invaders. The "Poor People's
Campaign" took place, but the new leadership did not embrace Dr. King's
plan to use the Invaders to recruit other black power groups.
J.
Edgar Hoover's obsession with blacks was well-known. In 1956, in the wake of
the Supreme Court's school desegregation decisions,
On
January 27, 1988, Rep. Mervyn Dymally,
then the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, put into the Congressional
Record a sworn affidavit from former FBI special agent Hirsch Friedman,
exposing an FBI program called ``Operation Fruehmenschen''
(German for ``primitive'' or ``early man.'') Friedman's affidavit, originally
filed in Federal court in
The
purpose of this policy was the routine investigation without probable cause of
prominent elected and appointed black officials in major metropolitan areas
throughout the
During
Ad Hoc Democratic Platform Hearings June 22 that were facilitated by Lyndon LaRouche's Presidential campaign committee, former
Tennessee judge and legislator Ira Murphy testified about Operation Fruehmenschen, which he has studied extensively. Judge
Murphy stated that he and others believe that the operation began ``under the
late Richard Nixon and J. Edgar
Some
members of the Invaders were locked up on various charges and sent to prison,
others were chased out of town, while a few were killed under strange
circumstances. However, during the Invaders' meeting with Dr. King, he
challenged them to develop a new psychology to plan their action and a new
philosophy to explain those actions. That challenge was answered fourteen years
later by the research of Dot M. Smith.
An
economist studying the disparities between blacks and whites, Smith published
her research in the Midsouth Journal of Economics
(Vol. 6 No 3) entitled Recession and
Unemployment: A Retrospective Analysis of the Economic Welfare Loss
in 1982. Her work proved that the Three-Fifths Compromise currently impacts
slave descendants and is not a bygone relic. Smith looked at black and white
unemployment and median family income data from the US Labor Department to see
if the data supported research that claims the gap between black and white
unemployment and median family income is the result of racism. [83][84][85][88]
Smith's
research established consistent and stable relationships between the
socio-economic conditions of black and white Americans. Her
and others' studies revealed that black unemployment has historically been
twice that of whites across every business cycle since the
Smith's
research explains why, on average, white median family incomes are consistently
40 percent greater than the median family incomes of blacks. Remarkably, the 40
percent difference mimics the 3/5 Compromise; Smith labeled this gap the chasm
of inequality. Smith's research showed that the divide between blacks and
whites has persisted through the Civil War, Emancipation, and the Thirteenth,
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Using regression analysis, which
controlled for variables, such as education, age, sex and mobility, she found a
residual that fluctuated within the narrow range of .35 to .5. The relevant
factor here is that the 3/5 Compromise is the statement in the Constitution
that legalized slavery and established the value of black human capital at 3/5
(.6) relative to white men. Slightly oversimplified by these numbers, the 3/5
Compromise formula of .6 made slaves less than 1 and represents inequality
(institutionalized racism). The result of what the "Founders"
mandated, through disparate treatment and discrimination, is that 2/5 of the
value of their labor that accrue to slaves and their descendants, has gone to
whites. [82]
Maintaining
this 2/5 disparity was the purpose of Jim Crow/segregation and lynching. Today
this role has passed to the US Supreme Court to continue the fallacious
"double bind" of civil rights. It is a pretense that there is some
unspoken reason or justification other than institutionalized racism and discrimination
to explain the chasm of inequality created by the Three-Fifths Compromise.
Smith's work showed that because blacks have been denied equal access to
education and services, such as health care, social assistance, employment and
a fair criminal justice system, blacks remain trapped in the same chasm that
divided the nation in1860, forcing Abraham Lincoln to embrace war to save the
Union and to emancipate slaves to save the war. Specifically, Smith's chasm
analysis debunks the assumption that blacks and whites achieved equality, which
can be expressed as 1 +1 =2.
Politicians,
scientists and leaders in education offer generalities about equality that
could not have taken place for blacks before 1965 to justify "reverse
discrimination." Moreover, they fail to offer any statistical examples to
support their contention that slave descendants are not currently experiencing
the same systemic 3/5 Compromise discrimination and disparate treatment their
ancestors endured. The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, after 1965,
brought blacks closest to experiencing equality, but it is readily admitted
that period still left blacks with "a long way to go" to reach 1=1
equality.
There
has never been a time when blacks enjoyed the same level of access to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that whites enjoy in the
"Why
does inequality exist today?" It exists because it never ended. Leaders in
the
How
does the 2/5 accrue to whites?" Blacks endure socioeconomic and political
discrimination across the spectrum. They pay more for everything (the ghetto
tax). They receive fewer services for the taxes they pay. Their life expectancy
is less than whites. Consequently, blacks receive less Social Security than
whites. This is all compounded by disparate treatment that denies blacks open
and complete access to all
For
the Supreme Court to maintain its present position on "reverse
discrimination" is like the policeman telling the man who is being ridden
that walking hurts the feet of the man who is riding him, so he cannot do
anything to put the rider off his back, because that would violate the rider's
right to be comfortable. Reverse discrimination means the court is nullifying
Brown v Board of Education and reverting back to Plessy
v
SURVIVING THE EXPECTATION OF RACISM
In
his comprehensive study The Negro Problem
and Modern Democracy (1944), Gunner Myrdal
used sociological (including economic), anthropological and legal data on
black-white race relations in the US to show that the "American dilemma is
between high ideals on the one hand and poor performance on the other: in the
two generations or more since the Civil War, the U.S. had not been able to put
its human rights ideals into practice for the black (or Negro) which is a tenth
of its population." Myrdal's statement is as
true today as it was in 1944. Moreover, his belief that the United Nations
could act to change the conditions of slave descendants living in the
Surviving
the expectation of racism is not as simple as participating in a scientific
laboratory experiment (Sseligman et al); it has
required slave descendants to develop strategies that were not only effective
in eluding the intentions of whites but productive enough for blacks to support
self, family and community. Although slave descendants have been the victims of
"learned helplessness" they have not been helpless. Quite to the
contrary, in the face of provocation, they have had to swallow pride and
dignity yet continue to be creative, innovative, imaginative and cunning in
building, despite unending government and private discrimination, disparate
treatment and a hostile racial environment, viable socioeconomic and political
structures that served to bring slave descendants into the new millennium as an
intact community. Unlike, the white community which had the government --
federal, state and local -- to rely upon for support and assistance from the
writing of the US Constitution and has been able to tax slave descendants and
use their tax revenue to build socioeconomic and political institutions, while denying
blacks access to what their tax dollars built, slave descendants have had to
"make something out of nothing," only to have it destroyed and to
rebuild again.
Petitioners
have presented here a survey of the history of black people in the
Petitioners
stipulate that the prosecution of a bloody civil war and emancipation did not
substantially alter the socioeconomic and political reality of former slaves
and their descendants other than to remove their bonds. The perpetuity of their
condition as an under class -- Three-Fifths Compromise -- was not repealed or
otherwise removed from the US Constitution, which made the 14th and
15th Amendments conditional, based on the mind-set of the men that
occupied the White House, the US Congress and those sitting on the US Supreme
Court. This constitutional anomaly reinforced white supremacy and negated
equality for blacks, making them subject to the racial hatred of whites,
victims of Jim Crow segregation and the perpetual second class status assigned
them in Article I Section II of the US Constitution. These conditions combined
to engender the expectation of racism on the part of slave descendants.
The
historical background provided here by Petitioners substantiates their charge
that violations of their human rights have been an unbroken legacy that extends
forward to the present. However, Petitioners' charge of human rights violations
does not rest solely on the past treatment of their ancestors. The lengthy
presentation of how life has been for slaves and their descendants living in
the United States of America was necessary to expel any impression that at some
point blacks were given equality, but due to indolence, ineptitude, poor work
ethic, servility or lack of aptitude, slave descendants failed to take
advantage of the opportunities America offered. It is clear from the record
presented here that not only did individual whites but government -- federal,
state and local - acted egregiously to prevent, frustrate, halt and otherwise
destroy socioeconomic and political enterprises undertaken by blacks whether
they were cooperative with whites or independent of them.
Despite
Jim Crow segregation, mob rule, lynch law and disfranchisement between 1890
thru 1954, blacks still produced a tremendous legacy of education, innovation,
entrepreneurship, entertainment, scientific endeavors and artistic achievement.
During this period Jim Crow systemized the American culture in such a way,
slave descendants were robbed of their achievements and recognition by whites
and cheated out of their place in the history written by whites. During and
after segregation, there were many incidences in which the
Now,
whites own the legacy and culture of
Black
culture has always been a money maker for whites. Blacks make the music while
whites make the money. That was how it was during "black face,"
ragtime, bebop, jazz, rock n roll and now hip hop. Whites allowed blacks to
make a few dollars singing rock n roll as long as they sang and danced to the
white man's tune, but entertainers could not identify with black power. A few
examples of artists who were blacklisted by record distributors because they
were too black include John Gary Williams of Stax,
who helped develop the "Memphis Sound" then became an Invader, folk
singer Lou Bond, who began to open eyes and minds with "To the
Establishment," or Bill Paul, who was big with the "Philadelphia Sound"
a "MOVE" supporter.
It
is difficult for most
The
people killed in the fire were not murderers, robbers, kidnapers or even
terrorists; they were a communal back-to-nature family, whose only crime was
refusing to accept the authority of white society to dictate how they should
live. The converse of
Slave
descendants in the
The
record industry came in and co-opted the message and image of hip hop. Big
money producers bought up artists and changed the direction of hip hop. They
made it all about money and self-image. If people cannot use their own
creativity, innovation and imagination to develop socioeconomic opportunities
that serve their needs free of the larger society monitoring and manipulating their
expression to serve its interests, they are not free, rather their human rights
have been violated.
This
is a new world where computers, satellites and the Internet exert control over
development, and because blacks are basically shut out of the technology boom,
their ability to compete is second class, as their ancestors' were during their
time. Locked out of developing economic trends or having what they create
hijacked reinforce slave descendants' expectation of racism, which decreases
their motivation to create because they know that the white man has always
gotten away with stealing their intellectual property.
Raising
issues such as
Here
one needs to remember the sharecroppers mentioned earlier from
Spreading
the net wide gives a clearer understanding of economist Dot M. Smith's
statistics in hopes of capturing a few incidents and individuals who fell
through the cracks of history. Under those circumstances, her research
illuminates the enormous impact of the 2/5 or .4 residual which may seem small
but figures prominently in the current relationship of black to white median
family income. Smith's research was peer-reviewed, meaning it stood up to the
rigorous scrutiny of other economists. This added greater weight to the fact
that her data from the US Labor Department showed that the .4 residual she
obtained mimics the Three-Fifths Compromise and proves that the US government
has engaged in a huge deception regarding its role in maintaining racism,
discrimination, disparate treatment and the hostile racial environment slave
descendants have endured.
Smith's
work also has serious bearing on the outlawing of affirmative action, which was
an attempt to make up for past discrimination. By the time affirmative action
ended, blacks had narrowed the income disparity gap to the closest distance
ever. One key aspect of affirmative action was minority contracts and set
asides, which mandated a certain amount of minority participation in the
letting of government contracts. Prior to affirmative action, the good old
white boy system -- a residual of segregation -- locked blacks out of the
awarding of contracts. With the aid of affirmative action, blacks began making
significant end roads with local, state and federal contracts by the 1990s. Adarand v Mineta and Adarand v Pena were two cases in which the Supreme Court
used to further establish "reverse discrimination" and curtail
affirmative action.
These
were not cases that involved blacks, but they came to the court as representing
the need for diversity because a minority contractor was involved. So, even
though the case had nothing to do with "making up for past discrimination
against slave descendants," the need for diversity was used in the ruling
to buttress eliminating affirmative action set asides. This is why Smith's work
is so important because it shows that the gap in median family income began to
widen and became a tighter fit with the Three-Fifths Compromise trend line as
affirmative action set asides were curtailed. Eliminating racism and
discrimination against black people means eliminating the advantage whites hold
with the Three-Fifths Compromise.
Median
family income is the best indicator of overall wealth of a society or groups
within a society. It fluctuates based on the boom and bust cycles; this is why
the consistent interval of .5 to .65 black to white median family incomes ratio
raises red flags relating to question of manipulation. An example of how such
manipulation can occur is best shown with the example of how the US Corps of
Engineers awards contracts in some areas. A & H Contractors, a black- owned
dredging company that is fully bonded, has received contracts for dredging work
on the Mississippi River from
Although,
The
2/5 or .4 that should accrue to slave descendants but go to whites through
procedures employed by the lower Mississippi regional office in Memphis allows
white contractors' families to build wealth, which they use to send their
children to the best colleges, buy them homes as new families and help their
children start businesses. While black contractors, because they do not get the
2/5 or .4 they would if they were valued as one, struggle to meet payrolls, get
new equipment and modernize their operations. If history holds true, the next
generation of blacks will have to start over from scratch. The black
contractors' children will grow up with an expectation of racism in whatever
endeavor they attempt. This is an example of how the two-fifths or .4 blacks
never receive accrues to whites and how the wealth gap between whites and
blacks continues to grow.
In
the case of affirmative action, white women, who are considered minorities even
though they never faced the racism blacks endured, were moved to the head of
the line, receiving most of the benefits of affirmative action programs and
efforts. Without some means of mitigating past and ongoing discrimination,
which is what affirmative action was supposed to do,
the white-controlled society will continue to claim the 2/5 or .4 that should
accrue to blacks.
Finally,
the recent controversy involving Mrs. Shirley Sherrod, an employee of the US
Department of Agriculture (USDA), illustrates that things have not changed
today for slave descendants. Getting fired on the whim of a white boss based on
the lies of another white man underscores the expectation of racism all blacks
face. Yet, what is most noteworthy here is, the identity of the white man that
murdered her father was known, yet justice was denied not only by local
authorities but the
WHAT THE PETITIONERS WANT
The
results of the May 18th through June 6th, 2008 visit of
Mr. Doudou Dične, the
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary
forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance,
left no doubt racism is alive and striving in the
The
Special Rapporteur took testimony about the
individual and structural racism that persists in the
These
groups are noted for their work on discrimination against migrant and
undocumented workers; disparate school punishment; maintaining and
strengthening affirmative action programs and combating racial profiling,
including discrimination against Arab and Muslim individuals and communities in
the post-9/11 era. They organized and facilitated public hearings and meetings
for the Special Rapporteur with affected communities,
victims, civil society, and national and local authorities.
Following
Mr. Dične's visit, the report mentioned above was
compiled. It detailed his finding and was officially presented to the United
Nations Human Rights Council in mid-June 2009. The report noted: "Racism and racial discrimination have
profoundly and lastingly marked and structured American society. However, the
historical, cultural and human depth of racism still permeates all dimensions
of life and American society."
The
Special Rapporteur formulated several
recommendations, including that:
(a)
Congress establish a bipartisan commission to evaluate the progress and
failures in the fight against racism and the ongoing process of re-segregation,
particularly in housing and education and to find responses to check these
trends;
(b)
The Government reassesses existing legislation on racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in view of two main
guidelines: addressing the overlapping nature of poverty and race or ethnicity;
and linking the fight against racism to the construction of a democratic,
egalitarian and interactive multiculturalism, in order to strengthen
inter-community relations;
(c)
The Government should intensify its efforts to enforce federal civil rights
laws; (d) The Government clarify to law enforcement officials the obligation of
equal treatment and, in particular, the prohibition of racial profiling.
The
statement by the Special Rapporteur can be considered
damning evidence in support of the charge of human rights violations made by
slave descendants contained in this petition. The work done by the groups
mentioned above that organized and facilitated public hearings and meetings for
the Special Rapporteur was not only appreciated but
was definitely needed. However, such groups are limited in scope and have
specific interests, and in that regard, they cannot sufficiently speak as
proxies before the Human Rights Council for slave descendants to inform the
world about human rights problems slave descendants have with the
The
decision by the
What
do we want? Petitioners come this day asking the Human Rights Council for
permission to appear in person as a witness and give testimony on our behalf to
insure that our story reflects what we understand as violations of our human
rights by the
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
Seligman, M.E.P. Helplessness: On
Depression, Development, and Death.
2.
Seligman, M.E.P. and Maier, S.F. Failure to escape traumatic shock. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74,
1-9. (1967).
3.
Overmier, J. B. and Seligman, M.E.P. Effects of
inescapable shock upon subsequent escape and avoidance responding. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology,
63, 28-33. (1967).
4.
Peterson, C., Maier, S. F., Seligman, M. E. P. Learned helplessness: A theory for the age of personal control.
5.
Dobbs, David, Torture as learned helplessness, or how to make prisoners really
sick on purpose (2009)
6.
Bennett, Lerone, Before
the Mayflower: A History of Black America, Johnson Publishing
Company (IL) (2003) ISBN-10: 0874850916
7.
Williams, Chancellor, The Destruction of
Black Civilization: Great Issues of a Race from 4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D.,
Kendall Hunt Publishing Company (1971).
8.
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtimeline.html
9.
Walton, Hanes, Jr., Smith, Robert C. American
Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom (3rd
Edition ed.).
10.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2930.html
11.
Litwack, Leon F. and Meier, August, eds., "John
Mercer Langston: Principle and Politics", in Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century, University of
12.
http://www.africanaonline.com/slavery_antislavery.htm
13.
Beecher, Edward, Narrative of Riots at
14.
Conrad, Earl, Harriet Tubman:
Negro Soldier and Abolitionist.
15.
Douglass,
16.
Vishneski, John, "What the Court Decided in Dred Scott v. Sandford". The American Journal of Legal History
32(4): 373-390, (1969).
17.
Donald, David H. et al. Civil War and
Reconstruction (2001), standard textbook
18.
Du Bois, W.E.B. Black
Reconstruction in
19.
Du Bois, W.E.B. "Reconstruction and its
Benefits," American Historical
Review, (1910), 781--99 online edition
20.
Dunning, William Archibald, Reconstruction:
Political & Economic, 1865-1877. Influential summary of
(1905).
21.
Guelzo, Allen C.,
22.
Foner, Eric and Mahoney,
23.
Foner, Eric, Reconstruction:
24.
Franklin, John Hope, Reconstruction after
the Civil War (1961), ISBN 0-226-26079-8.
25.
26.
Randall, J. G., The Civil War and Reconstruction
(1953). Long the standard survey
27.
Schurz, Carl,
"Report on the Condition of the South", December 1865 (
28.
King, Desmond, Separate and Unequal:
Black Americans and the
29.
Lopez, Ian F. Haney, "A nation of minorities: race, ethnicity, and
reactionary colorblindness", Stanford
Law Review, 01-FEB-07.
30.
Barnes, Catherine A., Journey from Jim
Crow: The Desegregation of Southern
31.
Bartley, Numan V., The
Rise of Massive Resistance: Race and Politics in the South during the 1950s
32.
Dailey, Jane; Gilmore, Glenda Elizabeth and Simon, Bryant, eds., Jumpin' Jim Crow: Southern Politics from Civil War to
Civil Rights (2000), essays by scholars on impact of Jim Crow on
black communities
33.
Klarman, Michael J.,
From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial
Equality,
34.
Alexander, Shawn Leigh, "The Afro-American Council and its Challenge of
35.
http://www.exodusnews.com/HISTORY/History010.htm,
East St. Louis Riot report Ida B. Wells.
36.
Hurd, Carlos F., St. Louis Post-Dispatch on
37.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/2000/raceriot0301.htm
38.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Summer_of_1919
39.
New York Times: "For Action on Race Riot Peril," October 5, 1919,
accessed January 20, 2010. This newspaper article includes several paragraphs
of editorial analysis followed by Dr. Haynes' report, "summarized at
several points."
40.
Erickson, Alana J., "Red Summer" in Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, NY:
Macmillan, (1960).
41.
Rucker, Walter C. and Upton James N., Encyclopedia
of American Race Riots, Vol. 1, 2007.
42.
"Protest Sent to
43.
Whitaker, Robert, On the Laps of Gods:
The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice that Remade a Nation,
NY: Random House, (2008).
44."None
Killed in Fight with Arkansas Posse," October 2, 1919, New York Times: accessed January 27,
2010.
45.
Ginzburg, Ralph, 100
YEARS OF LYNCHINGS, Lancer Books, Published (1962)
46.
Tuttle, William. Race Riot: Chicago in
the Red Summer of 1919,
47.
White, Walter Francis, A Man Called
White: The Autobiography of Walter White,
48.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Race_Riot
49.
James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name, The
Dial Press (1961).
50.
51.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadir_of_American_race_relations
52.
http://blackwallstreet.org/bwshistory/bwstulsa1830-1921.a.htm
53.
Hirsch, James, Riot and Remembrance:
54.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre
55.
Dye, R. Thomas, Rosewood,
56.
Jones, Maxine, "The Rosewood Massacre and the Women Who Survived It",
57.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessy_v._Ferguson
58.
Fireside,
59.
Tushnet, Mark. I
dissent: Great Opposing Opinions in Landmark Supreme Court Cases.
60.
Plessey v.
61.
Medley, Keith Walden, As Freeman: Plessey
v.
62.
Klarman, Michael
J., From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The
Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality (
63.
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001282/128291eo.pdf
64.
Myrdal, Gunnar, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern
Democracy, Harper & Bros (1944).
65.
Clark, K.B., The Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power,
66.
Patterson, James T., Brown v. Board of
Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy.
67.
Ogletree, Charles J., Jr., All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half
Century of Brown v. Board of Education.
68.
Brown v. Board of Education,
347
69. http://laws.findlaw.com/us/347/483.html. Retrieved 2008-02-04
70.
Sarat,
71.
Rehnquist, William, "A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases", S. Hrg. 99-1067, Hearings Before the Senate Committee on the
Judiciary on the Nomination of Justice William Hubbs
Rehnquist to be Chief Justice of the United States (July 29, 30, 31, and August
1, 1986).
72.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Manifesto
73.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regents_of_the_University_of_California_v._Bakke
74.
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=438&invol=265
75.
Cronon, Edmund David., Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro
Improvement Association.
76.
Martin, Tony, Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggle
of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
77.
Garvey, Amy Jacques, The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey.
Majority Press (1986) ISBN 0-912469-24-2
78.
http://www.marcusgarvey.com/
79.
Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the
Whirlwind (2000) (TV) Directed by
80.
Muhammad, Elijah, Message to the Black
Man in America, published Muhammed Mosque
of Islam #2 (1965).
81.
Malcolm X; with the assistance of Alex Haley: The Autobiography of Malcolm X.,
82.
Smith, Dorothy M.., Recession and
unemployment: A Retrospective Analysis of the Economic Welfare Loss,
Mid-South Journal of Economics (vol. 6 no 3), 1982.
83.
Johnson-Elie, Tannette, Study Shows How Deeply Black Men Face
Discrimination In Hiring,
84. Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta, Income Inequallity and
Employment, R&D Monogram No. 6, US Department of Labor
Employment and Training Administration, US Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C., (1981)
85.
Michael Reich, Civil rights and civil
wrongs: Racism in
86.
Sidney Wilhelm, The Supreme Court: A
Citadel for White Supremacy,
87.
Marshall, Thurgood,
Thurgood Marshall: His Speeches, Writings, Arguments,
Opinions and Reminiscences.
88.
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=7561
90.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE
91.
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4651126
92.
Medley, Keith Walden, As Freeman: Plessy v.
93.
Klarman, Michael
J., From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The
Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality,
94.
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/affirmative1.html
95.
http://www.experiencefestival.com/reverse_discrimination_-_history
96.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X
98.
Honey, Michael K., Going Down Jericho Road, W. W. Norton & Company
99.
http://american_almanac.tripod.com/hoover.htm
100.
Summers Anthony, Official and
Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, Johnson
Publishing Co. (1993)
101.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
102.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/NSA/Vendetta_MLK_LS.html
Responses
to this petition and accompanying letter should be emailed to archangelworld@ga.net.