Photograph of the 1917 NAACP Silent Protest Parade by Underwood and Underwood (courtesy James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African American Arts and Letters, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library).
The call to the march by the organizing committee of the 1917 NAACP Silent Protest Parade (courtesy James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African American Arts and Letters, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library).
In a petition to the White House, the marchers called on President Woodrow Wilson to take action, stating that in the “last thirty-one years 2,867 colored men and women have been lynched by mobs without trial. … We believe that this spirit of lawlessness is doing untold injury to our country and we submit that the record proves that the States are either unwilling or unable to put down lynching and mob violence.”
The organizers ended their list of “why do we march” reasons with:
We march because the growing consciousness and solidarity of race coupled with sorrow and discrimination have made us one: a union that may never be dissolved in spite of shallow-brained agitators, scheming pundits and political tricksters who secure a fleeting popularity and uncertain financial support by promoting the disunion of a people who ought to consider themselves as one.
It’s not possible to read about this march, or look at the images without seeing all the terrible parallels from 1917 to 2017. Lynch mobs may not roam at will now, but murderous cops are allowed to roam, and they are not punished for the thousands, every single year, of killings of Indigenous, Black, and Hispanic people. People are still marching. People are still taking a stand. And it’s beyond sadness that in all this time, these things are still needed.
You can see and read much more at Hyperallergic.
One of Orac’s (Respectful Insolence) snarkier regular commenters, “herr doktor bimmler”, used the term Uniformed Lynchers to describe the American police. I think this should see wider use.
That’s basically what they are. And citizens at large give them license to murder at will.
murderous cops are allowed to roam, and they are not punished for the thousands, every single year, of killings of Indigenous, Black, and Hispanic people.
Can you post a link to these figures?
I’ll give you two, Marner. There are others, and I’m sure you can manage to move your fingers enough to do your own homework.
http://killedbypolice.net/
http://inthesetimes.com/features/native_american_police_killings_native_lives_matter.html
The stories about the killings in the article are horrific. Thank you for educating me about Native Lives Matter. It obviously does not get the attention it deserves.
Some years ago, I learned that the United States government can’t be bothered to keep an accurate tally of people killed by the police and have been paying attention since. Recently, private organizations like Killed By Police (which you referenced), the Guardian, Fatal Encounters and the Washington Post have tried to do the job for them. There is a significant difference in the numbers, but it goes as high as 1570 (all races) killed in 2016. When you seem to suggest that 1,000’s of Indigenous, Black and Hispanic people are killed by police each year, it does not match up to any of the numbers I have seen. Not saying it is wrong. Just that it does not match up to the data that I have been seeing.
What’s your point, marner? If Caine had written ‘hundreds’, I feel you would still have objections, but I could be wrong. So what’s your point?
+++
How little has changed.
Just wanted to see if there was more accurate data out there. It remains a national shame that we don’t have it.