SOCIAL COMMENTARY
JUNE 2020 | VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 2
Georgia Jim Crow State of Mind
A Brunswick native's commentary on the Ahmaud Arbery Murder
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s the video of the Ahmaud Arbery shooting circulated around the country, all the stories heard throughout my childhood (awful as they were) came rushing back. Stories of Georgia's Jim Crow past; its murders and lynchings (including within my own family); the terrorism imposed by those sworn to serve and protect; the lawful voter suppression of the "White Primaries;" and the many other social and civil injustices people of color were made to endure while pursuing those unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Ahmaud Arbery
Segregation, voter suppression, lynchings, lack of state and federal protection, and the daily oppression of Jim Crow laws were the rule of order for people of color in the 40s. The oppression not only impacted the quality (and perceived value) of black life, it would serve as the backdrop for the upcoming Civil Rights movement of the 50's and 60's.
Brunswick, like other southern cities, mirrored the The city of Brunswick, Georgia changed for the better oppressive Jim Crow way of life for people of color. The with each generation of my family, unfortunately, some city was segregated in every possible way; neighborhoods, of its residents did not. public spaces, retail establishments and jobs, all the way down to the separate but unequal tax-payer-funded public When my grandparents, and eldest aunt, migrated to schools. And as my eldest aunt (who still lives in Brunswick) Brunswick in the 1940's, Thurgood Marshall would be reminded me, "Black folk weren't even able to sit down in a key factor in the U.S. Supreme Court striking down a restaurants. We had to order from the counter and stand Texas state law (used throughout the south) to impede there to eat. We couldn't sit at those white people's tables." the black vote in "white-only" primary elections. Some 300 miles northwest of Brunswick, George and Mae Murray Dorsey, and Roger and Dorothy Malcom are brutally murdered around the Moore's Ford Bridge; allegedly over voting rights and George Dorsey's relationship with a white woman. (No one was ever charged or held accountable for the murders.) The gruesome murders attracted national attention and sparked multi-city protests. President Harry S. Truman, in its aftermath, created the President's Committee on Civil Rights and introduced federal anti-lynching legislation; the anti-lynching legislation would fail due to Southern legislators in the Senate.
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BY R.L. BYRD
"Black folk weren't even able to sit down in restaurants. We had
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to order from the counter and stand there to eat."
