OPINION
CHICAGO DEFENDER
Robert S. Abbott (Founder) 1905 – 1940 John H. Sengstacke (Publisher) 1940 – 1983 Frederick D. Sengstacke (Publisher) 1983 – 2000
POWERED BY REAL TIMES MEDIA, INC.
Col. (Ret.) Eugene F. Scott (Publisher) 2000 – 2003 David M. Milliner (Publisher) 2003 – 2004 Michael A. House (Publisher) 2008 – 2013
President/Publisher: Cheryl Mainor
Blacks Yet to See Outpouring of Compassion left the South to flee the racial terror they experienced on a daily basis on every level. From racial terror lynchings to hangings, mob violence and public spectacle lynchings.
Terror by Various Means
E NOTES By Kai EL’Zabar
Defender Executive Editor One hundred years ago on May 15, the Chicago Defender declared the date the start of the “Great Northern Drive,” known today as the “Great Migration.” This was known as the first formal call for The Race to leave the terrorism and Jim Crow laws of the South behind and to move North. Robert Sengstacke Abbott, the founding publisher in his scathing editorials described the South as “the land where every foot of land marks a tragedy . . . Every Black man for the sake of his wife, and daughter should leave, even at financial sacrifice, every spot in the South where his worth is not appreciated enough to give him the standing of a man. . . . Come to Chicago and prosper.” By 1916, the Defender was distributed in 71 cities and towns throughout the U.S. and in the South secretly — by the Pullman Porters because the paper was banned in the South. Outside of Chicago, the greatest number of readers were in the South. And consequently at least 110,000 came to Chicago between 1916 and 1918, nearly tripling the inner city’s Black population. By 1919 the paper printed 230,000 copies, reaching at least twice as many Blacks as copies were shared and passed on. While the city was short on housing, jobs were plentiful. As Abbott expressed, “More positions opened than men for them.” So life began anew for Blacks, presenting a tremendous altered reality from what they suffered through under the oppression of White Supremacy and Jim Crow. It seemed to them that overnight their lives had transformed earning an honest day’s pay for a day’s work. The point being that it appeared that life was really going to be different for Black Americans, but truth be told, the cover merely changed. True there was greater opportunity in the North for Blacks, but racism persisted systematically because whites maintained their fear that if Blacks prospered, it meant their demise. Let me be very clear: Blacks were inspired by Robert Sengstacke Abbott’s editorials urging them to come to the land of milk and honey, but they
What is reality is that Blacks were terrorized, often resulting in their deaths by torture, hangings, fire and other means just because they were Black. They were murdered because they bumped into a white person accidently, or looked at a white woman, dared to meet eyes with a white man, spoke in the wrong tone of voice and numerous other reasons that were chosen as an excuse to kill a Black man, woman or child. In 1912, Thomas Miles was lynched for allegedly inviting a white woman to have a cold drink with him. In 1916, Jesse Washington was burned before a crowd of thousands of whites in Waco, Texas. The same year in Cedarbluff, Mississippi, white men lynched Jeff Brown for accidently bumping into a white girl as he ran to catch a train. In 1918, a mob lynched Berry Noyse (accused of killing a sheriff) in the courthouse square in Lexington, Tennessee, then dragged his body through the town, shot it a dozen times, and burned his body in the middle of the street below banners that read, “This is the way we do our bit.” And as late as 1955, 14-year-old Chicago-born Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, on Aug. 24. According to whites, he flirted with a white cashier at a grocery store. Four days later, two white men abducted Till, beat him so badly that his face was mutilated beyond recognition, and shot him in the head. He was
Letter to the Editor The Impact of Mass Incarceration on Black and Brown Children “The hole a man leaves when he abandons his responsibility to his children is one that no government can fill.” — President Barack Obama Imagine every day is Father’s Day, and over 2 million American children do not have an opportunity to celebrate their fathers because they’re in prison. Sadly, the United States has the largest prison population in the world with over 2.3 million people in prisons. However, the United States represents less than 5 percent of the world’s
06 June 22 - 28, 2016 • THE CHICAGO DEFENDER
Where is the outpouring of empathy and compassion for Blacks in America who have endured the worst this country has expressed? then weighed down and submerged in the Tallahatchie River. His cousin only managed to positively identify him by the ring on his finger, engraved with his father’s initials, “L.T.” The men were tried for murder, but an all-white, male jury acquitted them even though they had bragged about the murder. Whites’ accusations against Blacks were rarely scrutinized seriously and their word taken as fact. This continues as we bear witness to white police officers always declaring that they feared for their lives before shooting an unarmed Black person. population, it houses an astounding 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Since 1981, the increase in the U.S. prison population has raised the number of children of incarcerated parents by 80 percent. There are now 2.7 million minor children (under age 18) with a parent behind bars. The vast majority of these parents are African-American and Latino fathers. In state prisons, 42 percent of fathers are African-American, resulting in 1 in 9 African-American children (11 percent), 1 in 28 Hispanic children (3.5 percent) and 1 in 57 White children (1.8 percent) having an incarcerated parent. Mass incarceration cripples families and communities, perpetuates poverty, re-creates conditions for crime, wastes trillions of taxpayers’ dollars and has underlying racial bias implications. The tremendous increase in the prison population has changed much of the debates on just about every social and economic issue from the war on drugs to parental rights. The battle between the rights of custodial parents and non-custodial parents (particularly concerning incarcerated fathers) is a moot
These acts of terror targeted the entire African-American community, often choosing prominent public places, forcing Blacks to watch as they lynched and savagely violated the human temple of their victims. And white men, women and children present watched horrific murders while enjoying food, lemonade and whiskey in a picnic-like atmosphere. This they did for broad impact — to send a message of domination, to instill fear and oftentimes drive Blacks from their communities. This is the face of terror in America by whites against a race that has never been confronted for what it is. Never
were clergy, psycho-therapists, counselors, psychologists or any type of assistance called in to help the Blacks who experienced this depth of terror. Yet today we witness the summons of assistance as many rally to come to the aid of the victims who have suffered other insufferable acts such as the recent Orlando shootings, 9/11, 23 in a restaurant, 26 in an elementary school, and so on. We still suffer from terror. Where is the outpouring of empathy and compassion for Blacks in America who have endured the worst this country has expressed?
subject because of mandatory minimum sentencing. Moreover, indigent fathers who are incarcerated leave prison with an average of $20,000 in back debt, according to the Federal Agency for Child Support Enforcement, and 70 percent of all back child support is owed by men earning less than $10,000 a year, landing the majority of men of color back in prison — without being provided an attorney. Many incarcerated fathers have become trapped in a system that has failed to recognize the reality that African-American and Hispanic men earn less than white men, even when both have comparable incarceration and criminal offense records, making it almost impossible for them to pay back their child support. This modern-day debtor’s prison system is destroying the relationship fathers have with their children and makes it difficult for fathers to reconnect with their children once they are finally released, leaving children fatherless and more susceptible to gangs and violence. People of color have been incarcerated disproportionately, and their children are impacted, affecting the future of generations that follow. Children of incarcerated parents often suffer from poor health, behavior problems, emotional difficulties and poverty. To level the social, economic and political playing field, courts and policymakers must understand and consider all of the challenges children of incarcerated parents face when making decisions regarding sentencing their parents. Legislators need to recognize how critical comprehensive criminal justice reform is to re-
ducing state and federal prison populations. Reducing mandatory minimums, support for “Ban the Box” bills and state-supported transportation for children to visit incarcerated parents are acts of great efforts toward reform. Still, more needs to be done. Funding is needed for programs and services that directly address issues that impact the day-to-day lives of children of incarcerated parents. Some states have begun to implement a wide array of reforms to reduce incarceration rates and offer some optimism for incarcerated fathers. In Illinois, Rep. Arthur Turner, D-Chicago, has authored the Turner Bill, which if passed, will wipe out arrest records for ex-offenders that don’t end in a conviction — because charges are dismissed, or because a judge grants a conditional discharge, meaning no conviction is recorded if the defendant stays out of trouble for a specified period. Mass incarceration has destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, but a prison sentence for a father shouldn’t result in a life sentence for a child. This Father’s Day, let’s hope that all incarcerated fathers can find a way to spend more time with their children — and less time in prison. For more information on state programs and services for incarcerated fathers or fathers on probation or parole, visit www.childwelfare.gov Sincerely,
William J. Booker Park Forest, IL www.chicagodefender.com