We Will Not Stop Fighting Racism
In 1963, Medgar Evers was assassinated by racists in Jackson, Mississippi. According to civil rights activists, the entire Black population lined the route of the funeral procession to see the NAACP field secretary for Mississippi on his last ride as a warrior. In addition, those marching behind the white hearse stretched some 20 blocks.
According to eyewitness reports, at the time businesses were closed along the route and those whites that watched from their homes or businesses had expressions of hate, fear, bewilderment, and even disbelief. Many of them never expected to see such resistance. Some Whites expressed compassion and sorrow or looked down to express shame at what those “other whites” (the KKK) had done. However, because white supremacy is so strong,they were unable to express solidarity with the African American community. However, a few brave whites refused to bow down to the accepted norm of Jim Crow and joined in despite the brutal conditions imposed by the Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi that prevented any “singing or shouting of slogans. Despite this racist order the crowd sang in defiance of the mayor’s order.
According to civil rights activist James Jackson something amazing occurred. A small child began to sing “Oh Freedom: Oh, Oh Freedom! Before I be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave . . .” As a circle of people at the funeral home gathered around it grew so that it “fully covered the street from sidewalk to sidewalk.” The singing continued as the young lead singer segued into a defiant song, “This Little Light of Mine.” It was then that the racists intervened. The police chief entered the crowd trying to stop the singing as the people became aware of the steel-helmeted police that lined Capital Street, a street that divided the “races” (if there is any such thing) from each other. As the demonstrators turned to march toward the center of hell, the wall that separated people from one another (Capital Street) they continued to sing. The police had ordered a curfew against the African American community to take place immediately, but the community refused to be cowered by these racist acts.
According to eyewitness reports garbage trucks were being used to throw people in as the police moved in to stop the singing. James Jackson reported that he “saw a middle-aged woman belabored by a club-wielding policeman until she fell unconscious to the ground. He then grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to the nearest garbage truck where he hoisted her to his shoulders and dumped her in as though he were handling a sack of potatoes.” One woman who was pushing her husband in a wheel chair, and a Korean War veteran, was beaten to the ground because she was not moving “fast enough in the direction that the police had demanded.”
When the police dogs got there, they ripped into the flesh of those who stood up to segregation and the Klan. The police used cattle pens that housed cattle during state fairs as jail cells for some 900 people who stood up to the police and their racist followers.
Would you put yourself at risk to fight against racism? Some have, and some like Hershel Walker, Clarence Thomas, and others have chosen to suck up to white supremacy. This history should serve as a warning that the lunatics of racism are still here, building walls, preventing people from voting, wearing red hats, sabotaging elections, and engaged in new acts of racist hatred. We will not stop ever!
