September 2019


www.hamptonroadsmessenger.com


Your Opinion Matters No More Mary Turners


The Hampton Roads Messenger 5


Honoring 400 Years of African American History


BY DR. JULIANNE MALVEAUX Mary Turner was lynched on May


19. 1918 because she dared raise her voice. Her husband, Hayes Turner, was among 13 people lynched in two weeks in and around Valdosta, Georgia. The lynchings took place because one brutal white man, who was known to abuse workers so severely that he was only able to attract workers by getting them through the convict labor system, beat the wrong Black man too many times. Sidney Johnson shot and killed the brutal Hampton Smith, and in response the white people of the area started apprehending, beating, and lynching Black men believed to be associated with Sidney Johnson (even though many of those lynched were not). Mary Turner was nineteen years old and eight months pregnant, and her husband was lynched. She openly denounced the lynchings and threatened to have the men who killed her husband arrested.


After Mary Turner's lynching,


an investigative reporter stated that Turner was lynched because she made "unwise remarks." The mob, it was reported, "took exception to her remarks as well as her attitude." Her "defiant voice" was the impetus for mob retaliation. The mob action was particularly brutal. Mary Turner was hung by her ankles, lowered face down from a tree. Her clothing was set afire while she was alive. When she was dead, one of the mobsters slit her belly open, and her fetus came out, landing in a pool of blood. Then the sick and brutal white men crushed the infant's skull.


Black women have been, too


often, cautioned to be silent, to be demure, not to rock the boat. And Mary Turner's lynching reminds us that mouthy Black women often suffer the consequence of their vocality. The 45th President of the United States stands in the shadow of the men who silenced Mary Turner with his vicious and vile attacks on Black women. From Congresswoman Maxine Waters to Congresswoman Fredricka Whitfield, to journalists April Ryan, Abby Phillips and Yamiche Alcindor, this man neither has the grace or the gravitas to interact with these brilliant and amazing Black women. Now, here he goes again, spewing his filth. He suggested that four fresh women members of Congress, the self-described "Squad" of Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, "go back to where they came from." He amplified and attacked the women so vociferously (and inaccurately, but that's another story) that one of the mobs, I mean crowds,


that attended one of his rallies began to chant "Send her home."


Three of the four members of the


Squad were born in the United States. Ilhan Omar is a naturalized citizen and member of Congress. The President is out of line and out of order, but that's nothing new. What is new is that he's stopped dog-whistling his racism and now just shouts it out. And sometimes retreats. Five days after his offensive tweets, he claims he did not incite his crowd and instead tried to shut the racist chants down. Films of the mob at his rally shows otherwise.


Ilhan Omar and the other


members of the Squad have had their lives threatened, sometimes by identifiable Trump supporters. We can't expect 45 to repudiate the threats. After all, he thought there were "good people on both sides" in Charlottesville when Heather Heyer was killed. So we aren't surprised that he let the vitriolic chants of "send her back" to go on for more than 13 seconds before they died down naturally (he did nothing to stop them, nor did he comment at the time).


If something happens to Ilhan


Omar, our 45th President will be responsible. If something happens to any of the Squad, it will be the result of our putrid President and the silent Republicans who are reluctant to tell this man he is wrong. It took a full day after his offensive "go back" tweet for a handful of Republicans to speak up and say something.


Like the white men who lynched


Mary Turner, our President "takes exception to her remarks as well as her attitude." Without accusing Mr. Trump of lynching, one can accuse Mr. Trump of being a racist and hostile to Black women. Ilhan Omer isn't the first he went after, and she won't be the last.


Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley,


Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib had better not shut up. They need to continue to raise their loud, discordant, disruptive voices to make our country a better, more inclusive nation. They must raise their voices because Ida B. Wells did, and she paid the price. Because Shirley Chisholm did, and she paid the price. Because Barbara Lee did and got death threats as a result. Because Maxine Waters does, despite attacks and ridicule. Mary Turner chafed at her husband's lynching, and she paid the ultimate price. But the story of her lynching should strengthen us all. We must surround the Squad with support. We need more mouthy women to challenge patriarchal predatory white supremacy. There must not be another Mary Turner.


U.S. Senator Tim Kaine delivers remarks at the Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholars (VASTS) Summer Academy at NASA Langley on July 12, 2019. Photo by Katie Stuntz


BY U.S. SENATOR TIM KAINE I had the honor of addressing our


Commonwealth as we marked 400 years of African American history since the arrival of the first enslaved Africans into English Colonial America at Point Comfort in 1619.


What does this anniversary mean? In searching for a way to describe


its significance, I was drawn to the words of Oliver White Hill, the pioneering Virginia civil rights lawyer who I came to know when I was a young civil rights lawyer beginning my career in Richmond 35 years ago.


Mr. Hill was born in 1907, as


Virginia commemorated the 300th anniversary of the arrival of English settlers at Jamestown. He entered an ironclad segregated Virginia that had just passed a Constitution to guarantee discrimination against all people of color. From this start, he set his sights on the emancipation of African- Americans, indeed all Americans, from the bonds of prejudice. In the military, in the courts, as an elected official, as a civil rabble-rouser. He helped win the historic Brown v. Board of Education case and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999.


Mr. Hill grappled with the


significance of 1619. In fact, he organized a panel symposium in Jamestown 50 years ago-September 1969-to discuss what we are grappling with today-the monstrous tragedy of slavery and its deep and lasting consequences.


Mr. Hill wrote an autobiography


in 2000 and chose an unusual title. "The Big Bang." The book's theme was the evolution of mankind and the need for a continuing American Evolution. And I can think of no better way to describe the significance of the arrival


of the "20 and odd" African slaves at Point Comfort in August 1619. It was the Big Bang.


In physics, the Big Bang is the


violent event that began the universe. Its consequences linger. It was a starting point, and the process that commenced with the Big Bang is not yet complete.


The birth of slavery in our nation


was equally violent, both at its start and then for another 246 years. Its debilitating consequences still linger in our nation's soul.


It occurred precisely at the


same time as the birth of legislative democracy in our nation. And beginning in 1619, Virginia legislators and courts helped build the legal architecture enshrining slavery on this shore, just as a Virginian proudly proclaimed a society based on the truth that all were created equal. This dualism of high minded principle and indescribable cruelty has defined us.


The Trans-Atlantic slave trade


was one of the most cruel atrocities ever perpetrated by mankind. And yet, how fortunate we are as a country that the descendants of those African slaves and all who followed are still here and part of this nation. It is impossible to imagine an America without the courage, spirit, and accomplishment of the African diaspora. America would be so much the poorer without our African roots.


It's on each of us to understand


our nation's history and direct the change toward a better future. And we can't do this silently from the sidelines. Let's honor our African roots by finally living up to the American ideal that we are all created equal and deserve to live free.


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