Descendants Of Lynched Black Man Harassed

A black man in the 1910’s who had become successful. The penalty for working hard and being successful?

Relatives of lynched black man harassed as ‘troublemakers’ for holding remembrance ceremony in SC

Relatives of a man who was lynched in South Carolina say that they were harassed and called troublemakers over plans to honor him.

Doria Johnson told the Index-Journal that she began receiving distressing telephone calls from residents who opposed a ceremony for her great-great grandfather Anthony Crawford.

“I have gotten some phone calls which are concerning about starting trouble and demonstrations, and accusing us of being violent before we even get into town,” Johnson explained. “One call is too many. Why would you call me up and say you don’t want troublemakers when I’m coming there because of the troublemakers in your neighborhood.”

“It’s just that the presence of black people is always considered problematic, and that’s troubling to me,” she remarked.

In a ceremony on the Abbeville Court Square on Friday, Johnson unveiled a plaque with details of Crawford’s lynching.

The plaque notes that Crawford owned 427 acres and helped to establish farms, a church and a school for black residents of Abbeville.

On Oct. 21, 1916, Crawford was accused of cursing at a white store owner while trying to sell cotton seed. A mob of 400 people dragged him through the street by a noose. He was stabbed, beaten, hanged and riddled with 200 bullets.

“We want to counteract the Confederate symbols that are there and invoke black history,” Johnson observed. “There are no black public history markers there, so we have history teachers, activists and some of our family members who are going to teach classes every hour.”

“He was a strong black man who through hard work was becoming quite rich and I think that bothered a lot of people,” she said at Friday’s ceremony. “He was killed because he was too successful. That is unconscionable in America.”

 

Stone Mountain…To Get “Integrated”!

Talk about the “Heart of the South”. Stone Mountain Georgia is the confederacy’s’ Mt Rushmore. None of the confederate icons on Stone Mountain were born in Georgia. Indeed, Robert E, Lee and Stonewall Jackson were Virginians, and Jefferson Davis was born in Kentucky. Martin Luther King was a native son of the state, born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Stone Mountain to get new monument: MLK memorial will join Confederate heroes

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution in 1915, marking the re-establishment of the KKK with it’s base at Stone Mountain.

It has been called the “Confederate Mount Rushmore” — a tribute etched into Georgia’s Stone Mountain depicting Confederate war heroes Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis. The NAACP has demanded its removal. One local artist has suggested adding Georgia rap duo Outkast to the carving.

Now state authorities have announced plans to use the space to also honor the nation’s most beloved civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The monument to the martyr would stand amid America’s pro-slavery heroes, on a storied spot that once served as a gathering place for the Ku Klux Klan, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. It would feature a tower that would include a likeness of the Liberty Bell — a symbol of the country’s independence — along with a line taken from King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech: “Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.”

“It is one of the best-known speeches in U.S. history,” Bill Stephens, chief executive officer for the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, told the Atlanta newspaper. “We think it’s a great addition to the historical offerings we have here.”

The “freedom bell” itself will periodically ring from the mountaintop, the Journal-Constitution reported. An exhibit to celebrate African-American Civil War soldiers has been included in the plans, which are likely to be formally rolled out “sometime before the holiday season,” according to the newspaper.

[More cities celebrating ‘Indigenous Peoples Day’ amid effort to abolish Columbus Day]

The announcement followed an op-ed from Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Jim Galloway, who had called for such recognition. After nine black parishioners were shot and killed in June inside Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., there was a national backlash against Confederate flags and icons.

So Galloway suggested an idea: An addition to Stone Mountain, to show another side of history.

“Stone Mountain may be required to serve as a Confederate memorial, which makes the subtraction of history difficult,” he wrote in July. “But state law doesn’t rule out the addition of history. To respect the dead is well and good. It is not always wise to give them the last word.

“Perhaps a few words, carved in granite, once spoken by a fellow who had a dream of freedom ringing from the top of Stone Mountain.”

An Atlanta City Council resolution also called on Stone Mountain to consider adding others to the monument, possibly including King.

The idea apparently caught the governor’s attention.

“The governing body of Stone Mountain and the private company here, they went far beyond that and they decided there ought to be a monument,” Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) said, according to WSB-TV.…More…

There is also discussion of adding a Memorial to black soldiers who served in the Civil War.

 

He’s Baaaaaak! Tiger Wins the Memorial

For the first time in a long time – Tiger looks like Tiger…

Tiger Woods’ Chip Shot On 16th Hole At Memorial Propels Him To Win (VIDEO)

Cue up the “Tiger Woods is back” conversations!

On the 16th hole at the 2012 Memorial Tournament, Tiger Woods made an absolutely amazing shot to tie Rory Sabbatini for the lead at 8-under par on Sunday. The stunning 50-foot chip shot for birdie had the term “Vintage Tiger” trending on Twitter in no time. And, in true vintage fashion, Tiger celebrated the shot with a fierce fist pump.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better one. That was the most unbelievable, gutsy shot that I’ve ever seen,” raved golf legend Jack Nicklaus, who founded the tournament, after Jim Nantz of CBS asked if anyone had hit a better shot at the Memorial. “It was really, really unbelievable, particularly because of the position he was in. He hits it short the tournament is over. He hits it long the tournament is over. He put it in the whole. Unbelievable.”

Unbelievable!

After making this stunning shot, Woods went on to putt for par on 17 and then birdie the 18th hole as Sabbatini faltered down the stretch. Woods finished the final round at the Memorial at 5-under 67 and celebrated his fifth win at the tournament with a handshake from Nicklaus, who was waiting near the 18th green.

With this win, Woods ties Nicklaus with 73 career PGA Tour wins. They now share second place on the all-time list, trailing Sam Snead (82)

 

What Would King Do?

This from a website, “Campaign for America’s Future”, written by Terrence Heath –

MLK’s Dream Deferred

Dr. King’s words, invoked during President Obama’s inauguration, suggest what he would call us to remember and how he would challenge us today.

“As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty-eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy even if I just got a good checkup at the Mayo Clinic. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made. No individual or nation can stand our boasting of being independent. We are interdependent.

“The ultimate measure of a man or woman is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother or sister to a higher and more noble life.”

But he would not stop there.

• Dr. King would be concerned that an already slow economic recovery is leaving black Americans behind.
• King concerned about the epidemic of black unemployment — that black unemployment is at 16.2%, compared to 9.2% for the general population, 17.5% for black men, and 41% for black youth.
• King would be outraged that one in three black children lives in poverty.
• King would be troubled that black households now have 20 times less wealth than white households.
• King be concerned about the backward mobility happening in the African American communities, as middle class families quickly lose ground in this recession — losing hard won gains, in a fraction of the time it too achieve them.
• King would denounce the attacks on public workers that are hitting blacks and women the hardest.
• King would stand with public workers in Wisconsin, who now have to choose between health insurance and feeding their children.
• Dr. King would be outraged that the “welfare reform” of the 1990s is leaving more people in poverty today.
• Dr. King would scorn a recovery where CEO pay soars 27 percent, while virtually no jobs are created.
• King would denounce the GOP’s exploitation of racial and economic anxiety, and denounce Democrats just as loudly for failing to offer much of value to working-class whites.
• King would stand today where he stood then: with working families who are struggling in this recession, losing ground while our government seems content to let it happen.
• Dr. King would deliver the full-throated challenge to the status quo that many Americans are longing to hear.

It was popular in Right Wing circles for a while to try and steal from MLK’s words to justify their perverted logic. Fortunately that level of insanity has largely ceased, if for no other reason than the explosive nature of the “conversations” that typically followed.

Funny thing is, I don’t think King would be fighting just for the poor, and lower middle class in America right now… I think he would be fighting to change a system which has become so perverted there is no reasonable expectation of living as well as our parents did – or being able to hold a job even after pushing all the right buttons along the educational highway while CEOs and Wall Street Barons make billions in bonuses and salary.

Yeah…Something is wrong here.

 

 

 

Some Issues With Martin Luther King Memorial Surface

Taking a few words at their meaning, out of context with the events, or in some cases hundreds of words surrounding them is a recipe for disaster. In particular, the Rev. Martin Luther King, whose speeches and collective will driven by the righteousness of our cause shook our national psyche to it’s very foundations, left us with a number or speeches and written words left us with a number of “quotable moments” which cannot be distilled without context.

My parents, being educators collected a number of King’s Speeches and much of his oratory on old 33 1/3 RPM records allowing us to go back and review and rehear his speeches, discussions, and debates again and again. I would guess that well North of several thousand published works document the Civil Rights period, making it, WWII, and the Great Depression the most documented and detailed events of the past century.

So it is a little distressing when they get it wrong on the Memorial…

At King ceremony, a chance to bend toward justice

 

The arc of a mistake is long, and it now stretches from the Oval Office over to the Mall.

An error has been etched in marble on the grand Martin Luther King Jr. memorial that was to be dedicated Sunday, on the 48th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Some of King’s speeches and writings have been inscribed in the memorial. But one of the sayings on the wall by the Tidal Basin is incorrect — or incomplete — in its attribution.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

According to David Remnick’s biography of Obama, that is the president’s “favorite quotation.” Obama brought the idea back into present-day parlance and even had it sewn into the rug in the Oval Office when he redecorated last year. But as I wrote on this page last September, King is not the source of that quote.

 

The Picture Which Says It All…

Gabrielle Giffords’ Husband Walks Up and Hugs President Obama After His Memorial Speech Last Night.

Did anyone else notice that besides Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, there were no prominent Republicans at the event last night? I expected Sandra Day O’Connor and Justice Kennedy because of ties to the region, and felt that made an important point that the Court stands with Americans for justice and the rule of law.

I don’t know if they were dis-invited, felt uncomfortable, or what – but I expected the Speaker of the House, John Boehner to be there as the head of Congress.

That would have been an even stronger message to the haters. I think an opportunity was missed on someone’s part to show some solidarity.

To anyone still believing President Obama is a Muslim…Your belief isn’t based in any reality – it’s based on your bigotry. You ARE the problem.

 

Dead confederates…Again

Most people don’t know this – but there is a confederate Soldier Memorial at Arlington Cemetery. It was installed in 1914 and dedicated by then President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson was probably the most retrograde and racist President in American History.

The past practice of the sitting President sending a wreath to this Memorial each Memorial day, along with those to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers presents and interesting challenge for President Obama.

Freise on One Side of confederate Memorial

It was Inauguration Day, and in the judgment of one later historian, “the atmosphere in the nation’s capital bore ominous signs for Negroes.” Washington rang with happy Rebel Yells, while bands all over town played ‘Dixie.’ Indeed, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who swore in the newly elected Southern president, was himself a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Meanwhile, “an unidentified associate of the new Chief Executive warned that since the South ran the nation, Negroes should expect to be treated as a servile race.” Somebody had even sent the new president a possum, an act supposedly “consonant with Southern tradition.”…