Say His Name: Police Brutality, Extra-Judicial Killings and Achieving Racial Justice in the American Legal System
With the Black Lives Matter Movement in full swing, I wanted to write an essay about police brutality and the gravity of what we are fighting for. We are not fighting against one incident, we are fighting against centuries of injustice. While there has been an acceptance of responsibly for the slave trade and Jim Crow laws by governments, a minimum acceptance is all there is. I do not focus heavily on the positives of the Civil Rights Movement, most school textbooks have a very poor teaching of racism after the movement. I try to discuss ways in which the governments could take action and how we ourselves can change things (protesting, educating and harnessing white privilege). They did it in the Civil Rights Movement, we can do it now. Note: I am not a scholar, I am just an angry law student; forgive any errors. I also know this is shoddy referencing work but everything has been cited - just not beautifully.
With the Black Lives Matter Movement in full swing, I wanted to write an essay about police brutality and the gravity of what we are fighting for. We are not fighting against one incident, we are fighting against centuries of injustice. While there has been an acceptance of responsibly for the slave trade and Jim Crow laws by governments, a minimum acceptance is all there is. I do not focus heavily on the positives of the Civil Rights Movement, most school textbooks have a very poor teaching of racism after the movement. I try to discuss ways in which the governments could take action and how we ourselves can change things (protesting, educating and harnessing white privilege). They did it in the Civil Rights Movement, we can do it now.
Note: I am not a scholar, I am just an angry law student; forgive any errors. I also know this is shoddy referencing work but everything has been cited - just not beautifully.
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Figure 8: The burnt corpse of Will Brown
African American circus workers (fig 6) were suspects in an
assault case. The case of Mary Turner was particularly
horrifying. Her husband had shot and killed abusive plantation
owner Hampton Smith resulting in a manhunt for him. Mary
denied his involvement. Not long after, on the 19 th of May
1918, a mod of several hundred came, tied her ankles, hung
her upside down from a tree, doused her in gasoline and set
her on fire. While she was still alive, her abdomen was cut
open with a knife, and her unborn child fell out on the
ground. The baby was stomped on and crushed. 61 When
considering that the great majority of victims were black, it is
clear to see that lynching had little to do with justice. Even
more shockingly, lynching was only just recognised as a
deprivation of civil rights in 2018. The Justice for Victims of
Lynching Act of 2018 further acknowledged that 99% of all
perpetrators have escaped punishment from the State. 62
Next, I would like to bring attention to the Jim Crow laws, which found its roots in the Black Codes. Note that
lynching was practised before and during these laws. These laws began to be enacted in 1877 when the Supreme Court
ruled in Plessy v Ferguson that it cannot prohibit segregation, identifying with the principle of ‘separate but equal’. Jim
Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation. Public parks were forbidden for African Americans
to enter, and theatres and restaurants were segregated. Segregated waiting rooms in bus and train stations were
required, as well as water fountains, building entrances, elevators and cemeteries. 63 Segregation even extended to
schools, phone booths, hospitals, asylums, jails, prostitutes, 64 school textbooks. Atlanta gave African Americans a
different Bible to swear on. Marriage between whites and blacks was forbidden.
The Civil Rights Movement
What followed the Jim Crow laws was the Civil Rights Movement, which started in the late 1940s and ended in the
late 1960s, that we know so well. Although Brown v Board of Education repealed the decisions made in Plessy,
effectively ending racial segregation in public schools, many schools remained segregated. This also did not extend to
other areas of society and thus started the protesting led by the figures that changed the world: Rosa Parks, Martin
Luther King Jr, Malcolm X and many more. September of 1957 saw the signing of the Civil Rights Act 1957 which
allowed for federal prosecution of those who suppressed another’s right to vote. In 1964, President Lyndon B Johnson
signed the Civil Rights Act, which legally ended the segregation laws that Jim Crow laws had institutionalised. Lastly,
the Fair Housing Act of 1968 ended discrimination in the renting and selling of homes. Looking at the history of
racism in America is appalling, to put it mildly. No legal change came without years of protesting.
The American Legal System purports to protect its citizens, but this is far from the truth and is still the case. It was
only in 2017 that the US condemned ‘hate crime and any other form of racism, religious or ethnic bias, discrimination,
incitement to violence, or animus targeting a minority in the United States’. 65 This is not surprising when we look at
the immoral foundations upon which the nation is built. Although the US has reformed its laws, what remains clear
61
ibid
62
Justice for Victims of Lynching Act 2018, s2(5).
63
<https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws#section_1> accessed 3 June 2020.
64
In New Orleans
65
Senate Resolution 118, 115 th Congress, April 5 2017
7
Change language