#racistjudges

On this day June 27, 1911

Two Black Men Lynched in Georgia After Judge Denies Them Protection

On June 27, 1911, a Walton County mob of several hundred unmasked white men lynched two Black men named Tom Allen and Joe Watts after a local white judge—Charles H. Brand—refused to allow state guardsmen to be present to prevent mob action.

Judge Brand had been aware of the threat of mob violence for weeks. Mr. Allen, who had been accused of sexual impropriety against a white woman, had been held in Atlanta for safekeeping because of the threat. In early June, Mr. Allen was brought to Monroe for trial with the protection of state troops from the governor, but Judge Brand “resented” the presence of troops, postponed the trial because of the protection being offered, and sent Mr. Allen back to Atlanta. When Mr. Allen was ordered back to Monroe for trial on June 27, Judge Brand refused an offer of protection from the state troops. Consequently, Mr. Allen was protected only by two officers on the train.

Aware that Mr. Allen no longer had the protection of state troops, the white mob intercepted the train bound for Monroe and seized Mr. Allen from the two officers charged with protecting him. The mob tied Mr. Allen to a telegraph pole and shot him while the passengers of the train and hundreds in the mob looked on. 

The mob then proceeded to march six miles to the town jail where another Black man named Joe Watts was being held. Some newspapers reported that Mr. Watts was an alleged accomplice of Mr. Allen, while others noted Mr. Watts had been arrested for having “acted suspiciously” outside of a white man’s home but had not been charged with a crime. The white mob stormed the jail without resistance from the jailers, removed Mr. Watts, and lynched him as well, hanging him from a tree and shooting him repeatedly. Both men had maintained that they were innocent, and contemporary newspapers reported that there was no evidence against them. 

In most cases of racial terror lynching throughout this era, the legal system failed to intervene or use force to repel lynch mobs, even when the threat of lynching was evident and underway. Despite their legal responsibility to equally protect anyone in their custody, law enforcement and judicial officials were often found to be complicit in the seizure or lynchings of Black men, women, and children by abdicating their responsibility to prevent mob abductions.

In this case, Judge Brand refused to allow for the protection of the state troops that had successfully transported and protected Mr. Allen from being lynched just three weeks before, making it easier for the white mob to lynch these men. Three months earlier, in Judge Brand’s hometown of Lawrenceville in Gwinnett County, he had also refused the assistance of state troops to protect a Black man named Charles Hale, who, left without the protection of those troops, was taken by a white mob and lynched. 

Despite his failure to protect these men, he continued to serve as a judge until 1917. In 1917, Judge Brand was elected to Congress to represent Georgia's 8th Congressional District, where he served seven consecutive terms. 

On this day March 23, 1875

Tennessee Legalizes Racial Discrimination in Public Spaces After Civil Rights Act Passes

Has anything really changed in all the injustices and discrimination that people of colour face every day for over 200 years?

On March 23, 1875, the Tennessee legislature approved House Bill 527, which permitted hotels, inns, public transportation, and amusement parks to refuse admission and service to any person for any reason. Three weeks before, federal authorities had enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which guaranteed African Americans equal treatment in public accommodations and jury service. By enacting a state law that allowed for all kinds of discrimination, including on the basis of race, Tennessee officials had defiantly authorized the very discrimination the federal law prohibited.

In July 1866, after ratifying the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, Tennessee became the first Confederate state readmitted to the Union. However, many white residents in the state had not accepted the outcome of the recent Civil War and remained intent on maintaining their dominance over a political and social system that now included many free Black citizens.

In 1869, racialized political movements restored former Confederates to legislative power in Tennessee. Newly elected lawmakers quickly undertook efforts to "redeem" the South by restoring white supremacy and the exploitation of Black labor. Legislators quickly repealed a state statute passed in 1868 under the Reconstruction government that had outlawed racial discrimination in railroad travel. In 1870, Tennessee lawmakers went further, amending the state constitution to prohibit racial integration of Tennessee public schools.

Many other border states passed similar laws aimed at limiting Black Americans' new constitutional rights and protections. Congress's passage of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1875 was an attempt to enforce Black Americans' rights and equality, and it set off a legal conflict between state and federal power.

This is another reason that I vote every year. My ancestors spent their entire lives in slavery or dealing with racists getting away with murder.

On this day September 21, 2011

Troy Davis Executed in Georgia Despite Evidence of Innocence

On September 21, 2011, the State of Georgia executed Troy Davis despite evidence of his innocence. Mr. Davis, a Black man, was sentenced to death in the 1989 fatal shooting of white off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. Supporters of Mr. Davis, including the NAACP, Amnesty International, former President Jimmy Carter, and Pope Benedict XVI, had been encouraged by a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing Mr. Davis to present evidence of his innocence in court. But when the federal trial judge denied relief, the Supreme Court refused to review the case and an execution date was set.

In Georgia, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles—not the governor—has exclusive authority to grant clemency. Two days before Mr. Davis’s scheduled execution, the board held a full clemency hearing and heard statements from Mr. Davis's attorneys and supporters, prosecutors, and the victim's family. By that time, seven of the prosecution's nine key witnesses against Mr. Davis had either recanted or backed off their trial testimony, while new witnesses had come forward to give sworn statements that a different person had confessed to the shooting.

The new evidence of Mr. Davis’s innocence was so compelling that three of the original jurors who sentenced him to death in 1991 urged the board to stop the execution. In addition, more than 600,000 people worldwide signed petitions supporting clemency and expressed concerns that executing a man amid so much uncertainty about his guilt would deeply undermine the public's confidence in the justice system.

Despite these developments and broad-based support, Georgia's Board of Pardons and Parole denied clemency on September 20, 2011, clearing the way for Troy Davis to be executed the next day. In his final words, Mr. Davis professed his innocence, expressed condolences to Officer MacPhail’s family, and expressed appreciation to his family and supporters. Mr. Davis was executed by lethal injection on September 21 and pronounced dead at 11:08 pm. He was 42 years old.

On this day - April 25, 1959

Mack Charles Parker Murdered by White Mob in Mississippi

On April 25, 1959, a white mob in Mississippi killed a Black man named Mack Charles Parker. Mr. Parker had been accused of raping a white woman but emphatically denied the accusations. Statements from those in the community suggested that the woman fabricated the rape claims to hide her consensual affair with a white man in a nearby town, and police officers garnered no conclusive evidence implicating Mr. Parker. Nevertheless, local white men formed a mob intent on killing Mr. Parker before he could stand trial.

Days after Mr. Parker was transferred from the Hinds County Jail in Jackson to the Pearl River County Jail, a mob seized him from his cell, beat him, and dragged him outside. Bleeding profusely, Mr. Parker begged for his life, but the mob drove to the Bogalusa Bridge, pulled him from the car, and shot him. The mob then put chains around Mr. Parker's body and threw him into the Pearl River; his body was found more than a week later.

Does anyone remember this horrible event? As a young Black man, it scared the fuck outta me and will always be etched in my memory the way Rodney King was beaten. None of the police were held accountable for the damage and trauma they caused.

On this day - April 29, 1992

All-White Jury Acquits Officers Who Beat Rodney King Despite Video Evidence 

On April 29, 1992, an all-white jury in California chose to acquit three of the four Los Angeles Police Department officers who beat Rodney King during a violent arrest in March of 1991 and could not agree on a verdict for the fourth officer, despite video evidence establishing their culpability.

On March 3, 1991, Mr. King was driving in downtown Los Angeles when the LAPD pulled him over and began beating him after he allegedly resisted arrest. Four LAPD officers kicked Mr. King, who was on the ground, and beat him with batons for nearly 15 minutes while more than a dozen law enforcement officers stood by. Mr. King sustained life-threatening injuries, including skull fractures and permanent brain damage.

A man standing on his balcony witnessed the violent arrest and captured it on tape. Video of the unrelenting assault was played at trial and broadcasted into homes across the nation and around the world.

Just months before the officers were acquitted, a federal court had concluded that Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies continued to use racially motivated “terrorist-type tactics” to violate the civil rights of Black people. Still, none of the officers involved in Mr. King’s assault faced punishment at trial.

The legal system’s refusal to hold these officers accountable was not unique—the Los Angeles Black community had already endured decades of racial discrimination, violence, and police brutality—but many community members found the outcome inexplicable given that the officers’ conduct had been caught on camera. The same month that Rodney King was beaten, a Korean store owner in South Central Los Angeles shot and killed a 15-year-old Black girl named Latasha Harlins after accusing her of trying to steal a bottle of orange juice. Latasha was clutching money when she was killed, but the store owner received only probation and a $500 fine.

The verdict drew shock and anguish across the county, and members of the Black community in Los Angeles took to the streets in protests that lasted until May 4, 1992.

On this day - February 27, 1869

Congress Refuses to Seat John Willis Menard, the First Black Man Elected to the House of Representatives

Racism in America has been going on for a very long time.