In Memory of George Floyd

In Memory of George Floyd

George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police, live on video, on Monday, May 24, 2020. This is the latest in a long history of murders of unarmed African Americans. The unjust murder of African Americans has been a consistent and reoccurring issue throughout the existence of the United States whether it be “legal” murders by police (or other government officials) or “extra-legal” murders (such as seen in another recent video), once referred to as lynching.

The term lynching is not exclusive to the murder of African Americans, but black Americans were (are) a common victim. Lynching in the African American community goes back at least to Reconstruction (period after the American Civil War). During Reconstruction, African Americans (males) were being enfranchised and there were efforts to provide, jobs, education, and other necessities to the large population of former slaves. A backlash resulted in the rise of what is now known as the Ku Klux Klan. This original version of the Klan should be considered terrorism at its worst. A guerilla war was waged throughout the South. A system of intimidation and murder was used against African Americans (and many whites) who not only were working to rebuild the South, but even those who were perceived as being neutral or potentially working for the new system. Eventually, politicians and the American public grew weary of this legacy of war and agreed to end Reconstruction. Soon the same people who were in power in the Southern states before the war (or their sons) were back in power. New state constitutions and laws (containing many laws, such as the Jim Crow system, that has since been declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court) were written. In most states, it was under these governments that many Confederate memorials (which have had their own share of controversy in recent years) were erected. The share-cropping system was created, putting many African American farmers in such debt that they were practically returned to slavery. (Poor whites, also served as sharecroppers, but it was designed with former slaves in mind.) Voting laws, such as “grandfather clauses”, literacy tests, and poll taxes were put into place. Vagrancy and loitering laws were renewed and enforced as needed to remind African Americans of their place in society. Those who were perceived to “step out of line” were victims of lynching. Sadly, as many African Americans moved north, they found that these problems were not exclusive to the South.

Ironically, a highly publicized lynching incident helped to spark the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th Century. Emmet Till as a fourteen-year-old African American from Chicago, visiting his family in Mississippi. After a white woman accused him of trying to flirt with her, he was murdered. When his body was found, his mother refused to allow a closed-casket funeral. Pictures of Till’s body circulated nationally, inspiring many volunteers in the Civil Rights Movement of the late 50s and early 60s.

Many point to the success of this movement as the beginning of a new era in equal rights, however, much like the period after Reconstruction, the backlash merely changed the terms and altered or reworded existing laws to maintain the former power structure. The Democratic Party coveting the black vote, changed many of its policies. This alienated the old party structure (who had been the political power in the South). These voters were embraced by the Republican party. Racist and segregationist rhetoric was replaced with promises of “safety” and “security”. And the term, “conservative” also took on a new flavor (like lynching, not a racial word on its own, but initially used to attract these votes). “Tough on crime” became the go-to approach of courting the votes of many of these former segregationists. Vagrancy and loitering laws grew to include possession drug charges. Like the sharecropping system, whites citizens can also be in violation of these laws (this is often pointed out as proof that these laws do not target African Americans.) The prison system (which has been increasingly privatized in recent decades) overwhelming houses minorities (African Americans and Latinos). Police tactics that became militarized to combat civil rights and Vietnam protests were renewed for the “War on Drugs (and/or Crime)”. Police department policies allowed for an escalation of force when making arrests and these policies are used to justify tactics such as those used in the murder of George Floyd.

Frequently, the same political circles that allow such laws and “tough on crime” rhetoric have also favored “stand your ground” laws and “citizens arrests”, which are often used to “justify” murders of men like Ahmaud Arbery.

Through this historical lens, Floyd and Arbery’s murders cannot be seen as anything less than lynching. Sometimes they are referred to as “Modern-Day” lynching, and it is true, we who are alive today are in modern times. However, the “Modern-Day” prefix implies that something has changed since the periods in which lynching was more acceptable. Following this historical line, the best we could say is that lynching has evolved, but it remains lynching nonetheless.

We are well beyond the point in history in which lynching should be acceptable. Images of Emmet Till’s body sparked the Civil Rights Movement. Images from that movement sparked changes in the written law. Thank God most humans now carry cameras in their pockets to catch these “Modern-Day” incidents when they happen, but how many murders must be caught on camera before the next major shift comes? And will this shift be the last one? Or will there simply be a better cloaked version of “share-cropping” and “conservatives”?

Sources:
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
The Bloody Shirt: Terror After the Civil War by Stephen Budiansky
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-death-of-george-floyd-in-context
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52834685