The people that were killed for involvement in the struggle for human and civil rights are in the hundreds if not thousands. These numbers include the names of many that were killed by white racist mobs and law enforcement. It would take a whole book to document all of the Black People killed by racists in the 1950s and the 1960s, but to mention a few is a way for us not to forget what white supremacy created a legacy of hate. It is also important to remember their names so that when people are murdered and brutalized today by bad cops, we can see how white supremacy is still a major problem.
Alabama martyrs include Thomas Edward Brooks, the “Four Little Black Girls,” Jimmie Lee Jackson, Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Reverend James Reeb, Viola Gregg Liuzzo, Samuel Leamon Younge, Jr., David Colston, Sr., and Margaret Ann Knott, These are only a few that we need to honor for sacrificing their lives in the war against white supremacy. In Mississippi, the martyrs include Cleve McDowell, Reverend George Lee, Herbert Lee, William Lewis Moore, Medgar Evers, Sam O’Quinn, Hartman Turnbow, Clyde Kennard, Freddie Lee Thomas, Vernon Dahmer, Wayne Yancy, James Earl Chaney, Louis Allen, Wharlest Jackson, Benjamin Brown, John Thomas, Fannie Lou Hamer, Lamar Smith, Roman Duckworth, Jr., Clifton Walker, Neimiah Montgomery, Charles Eddie Moore, Henry Hezekiah Dee, Silas Caston, Donald Rasberry, Saleam Triggs, Willie Henry Lee, Hubert Orsby, Pheld Evans, Ernest Jells, and Jessie Brown. In Alabama, Thomas Brooks refused to sit in the back of a bus in 1950, he was beaten and shot in the head. He bled to death beside that very bus. Many of those murdered are unnamed and include many others in Alabama and Mississippi.
Many were murdered solely based on skin color and include Willie Carlisle, Charlie Hurst, Della McDuffie, Rev. Charles Baldwin, Bessie McDowell, Willie Edwards, Willie Dunnigan, Horace Bell, John Coley, Donald Newcomb Paige, Johnny Robinson, Virgil Ware, Perry Small, Frank Andrews, Willie Brewster, Thad Christian, Rodell Williamson, Nathan Johnson, Archie Wooden, James Earl Motley, Bonita Carter Michael Donald, Emmitt Till, Clinton Melton, nine members of the Taplin Family, Charles Brown, and the list goes on and on. We cannot forget these martyrs and those killed by ignorant wild-eyed racists. Black Panthers Mark Clark and Fred Hampton were also murdered for standing up to white supremacy. Did these murders stop the movement? No, and they never will.
Some of these martyrs were shot, beaten to death, bombed, burned to death, and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder. The boiling point of rage in the Black community turned into open rebellion is cities across America and this rage against white supremacy and police abuse is still with us. Yet, various racist governors would have us pretend that it never happened or these were isolated incidents. Texas Governor Gregg Abbott wants us to look at slavery as if it were “involuntary relocation” and an issue that should not be taught because “some whites will feel uncomfortable.” Those who are not racists will not feel uncomfortable, but knowing that some of their ancestors were bigots, but they are not, is empowering.
There are hundreds of stories and hundreds of deaths in a country that was infected with the virus of white supremacy. The legacy of white supremacist violence continues to this day with police abuse and vigilante killers that have lost much of their power. They are fearful that the hatred passed on from their ancestors is beginning to crack and their ideas are seen as sick and insane.
