1931-1935

 Day 11
1931: Two Black Women Die After Segregated Hospital Refuses Care

On November 7, 1931, Dean Juliette Derricotte of Fisk University in Nashville was driving three students to her parents’ home in Atlanta when a Model T driven by an older white man suddenly swerved and struck Ms. Derricotte’s car, overturning it into a ditch. The white driver stopped to yell at the black occupants of Ms. Derricotte’s car for damaging his own vehicle, then left the scene without rendering any aid. When others tried to get care for the injured black riders, nearby Hamilton Memorial Hospital in Dalton, Georgia -- a segregated facility -- refused to admit African American patients. Instead, Ms. Derricotte and the three students were treated by a white doctor at his office in Dalton. Though Ms. Derricotte and one of the students, Nina Johnson, were critically injured, they were afterward left to recuperate in the home of a local African American woman.

Six hours after the accident, one of the less seriously injured students was able to reach a Chattanooga hospital by phone, and arrangements were made to transport Ms. Derricotte and Ms. Johnson the thirty-five miles to that facility. However, the delay proved fatal: Ms. Derricotte died on her way to the hospital, at age thirty-four, and Ms. Johnson died the next day.

The Committee on Interracial Cooperation opened an investigation into the incident, and Walter White, secretary of the New York-based NAACP, traveled south in December 1931 to learn more. He later concluded, “The barbarity of race segregation in the South is shown in all its brutal ugliness by the willingness to let cultured, respected, and leading colored women die for lack of hospital facilities which are available to any white person no matter how low in social scale.”

Sources/Comments:

Click HERE

Day 12
1932: Dave Tillis Lynched For Daring To Ask His Landlord A Question

In 1932, Dave Tillis made a grave error: Asking his landlord for “an accounting” from his landlord.

Because of this question, his landlord made the false claim that Tillis entered his wife’s bedroom. The landlord came with 4 of his neighbors and hung Tillis from a tree. No charges were ever filed.

Every one of these lynchings and massacres instilled fear in blacks across the country- which was exactly the point. It is critical to recognize that lynchings were used as a means of terror. Every black American had to fear a lynching for simply walking down the street.

“Southern states were equipped with readily-available, fully-functioning criminal justice systems eager to punish African American defendants with hefty fines, imprisonment, terms of forced labor for state profit, and legal execution.133 Lynching in this era and region was not used as a tool of crime control, but rather as a tool of racial control wielded almost exclusively by white mobs against African American victims. Many lynching victims were not accused of any criminal act, and lynch mobs regularly displayed complete disregard for the legal system.”

Sources/Comments:

Click HERE and HERE and HERE

Day 13

1933: Mob of 2,000 White Men Lynch George Armwood (note: the details are what make this so disturbing. An 18 year old chopping off his ear, thousands dancing around his charred remains. And, please remember, when black men were accused of "assaulting a white woman" this typically meant they "looked at her funny," "were in the same room alone," "whispered near her" or some other absurd claim. Of course, the lynchers got off without punishment- remember, these lynchings were a tool to create terror in the black community so they would remember their place in society)

On October 18, 1933, a mob of at least 2,000 white residents of Princess Anne, Maryland beat, hanged, dragged, and burned George Armwood to death. Armwood, reportedly known to be "feeble-minded," had been accused of assaulting an 80-year-old woman who was also the mother of a local white policeman. Shortly after being arrested, Armwood was dragged out of the jail and an 18-year-old boy immediately cut off his ear with a butcher knife. The growing mob then beat George Armwood nearly to death and dragged him to a tree, where he was hanged. Afterward, the mob cut down his corpse, dragged it through the streets, hanged it again, and then staged a public burning. The New Journal and Guide reported that “[m]en, women and children, participated in the savage orgy.” The Afro American reported that the mob danced around Mr. Armwood's charred remains. The report quoted one white man, who said, "It would have cost the state $1000 to hang the man. It cost us 75 cents."

Armwood’s lynching sparked a national outcry and calls for prosecution of the lynchers, yet investigations at the county, state, and federal levels faced obstacles and delays. Inquiries following the lynching were marked by residents’ refusal to identify participants as well as mockery and intimidation of black witnesses. The American Civil Liberties Union, frustrated with the silence, began offering a $1,000 reward to people willing to name leaders of the mob.

Even when finally presented with identifying evidence, the county prosecutor refused to act. When the Maryland Attorney General ordered troops to arrest eight named participants, white residents who supported the accused lynchers waged riots of protest. Four white men were ultimately tried for the lynching of George Armwood and acquitted by all-white juries.

Sources/Comments:

The savagery of the masses and their excitement over this lynching is despicable. I hope you noticed the quotes of those who participated in the lynching. Blacks were told they were worse than dogs on a daily basis, and they were treated as such continually.

Click HERE

Day 14
1934: Redlining Begins With the National Housing Act of 1934

What Is Redlining?

The illegal discriminatory practice in which a mortgage lender denies loans or an insurance provider restricts services to certain areas of a community, often because of the racial characteristics of the applicant’s neighborhood. Redlining practices also include unfair and abusive loan terms for borrowers, outright deception, and penalties for prepaying loans. The term redlining came about in reference to the use of red marks on maps that loan corporations would use to outline mixed-race or African American neighborhoods. Neighborhoods in more-affluent areas, which were deemed the most worthy of loans, were usually outlined in blue or green. Neighborhoods outlined in yellow were also considered desirable for lending.

During the 1930s, federal programs such as the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (created in 1933) and the Federal Housing Administration (created in 1934) were established to encourage widespread home ownership and suburban development by making home loans and mortgages affordable. However, neighbourhoods that were mixed-race or predominantly African American did not benefit from those programs, because their credit was considered high-risk.

In the early 1900s, before the practice of redlining began, racial homogeneity was preserved in suburban communities by implementing zoning laws that did not allow the construction of small, affordable houses or apartments. Racial homogeneity also was preserved through residential segregation, as whites tended not to sell or rent to nonwhite persons, often by placing racially restrictive covenants in property deeds. African American newcomers who found a way to work around such policies and practices to move into suburban neighbourhoods usually found themselves in hostile environments.

When people say "systematic racism," this is what it looks like in housing. Systems that are put in place by the government to legalize discrimination against certain segments of society. And the effects of these laws are still felt today.

Sources/Comments:

-The point of the picture is that what the black community really needs is allies in the housing market- people who will not take advantage of them. Calling a room "Master" isn't the problem- predatory lending is.

-This subject is hitting me close to home. I live in the 6th wealthiest county in the country, and easily one of the whitest. Why? Because we have zoning laws forbidding low-income housing.

-Redlining is no longer legal, but it still happens in many ways. Realtors use terms like "unsafe" or "poor" to describe black communities, without ever saying the word "black." Therefore, those communities continue to be poor as businesses and people avoid those areas.

I am not calling out others while not calling out myself as well. I know this is a sad and serious issue. I'm just not sure what to do with it, but that's why I do want to learn and understand.

-The Denver Post, Sunday June 14th, 2020 details how racist redlining policies continue to affect Denver today: Denver’s history of segregation started in 1925 when the Ku Klux Klan helped the city define where white and black people could live. In the 1930s, the federal government’s practice of redlining prohibited banks from issuing mortgages in black neighborhoods. By the 1940s, housing covenants stopped Denver’s non-white residents from owning or renting in many areas. And today, wealthy, white homeowners have a disproportionate say in the city’s future. These “neighborhood defenders” use their influence to zealously preserve one of the Klan’s original tool of segregation: zoning that bans all types of housing except single-family homes.

Such laws have concentrated generations of people of color in the poorest, sickest and most polluted parts of Denver. They have driven up housing costs, leading to L of Colorado renters now spending more than 30% of their income on housing. They have rendered thousands homeless. And together, these laws form a societal structure that — intentionally or not — upholds racial disparities.

Over time, explicitly racist housing policies were outlawed. That’s when Denver, like much of America, returned to zoning to uphold racial boundaries.

“The predominantly white areas of town were zoned single-family while areas occupied by minorities were more likely to be zoned for multifamily housing,” wrote Gosia Kung, a member of Denver’s Planning Board, in a post on the Denver Urbanism blog.

-Heather Cox Richardson, who I think is one of the most brilliant women on the planet, happened to discuss unfair housing practices and how they affect blacks today. Here is what she wrote:

On Tuesday night, Trump tweeted that he was considering scrapping a fair housing rule designed to combat racial segregation.

In 2015, President Barack Obama announced new rules to clarify the 1968 Fair Housing Act. That act required government not simply to stop outright discrimination, but also to dismantle existing segregation and foster integration instead, but this latter part of the law’s charge really never got off the ground. The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule was designed to remedy that lack. It sets out a framework for local governments, States, and public housing agencies to look for racially biased housing patterns and to report the results. This will call out, for example, places where zoning laws bar affordable housing, a policy that appears to be race-blind, but which in practice excludes low-income families of color. The AFFH rule also requires towns to set goals which must be tracked over time.

Even while the rule was under discussion, opponents claimed it was an experiment in “social engineering” that would destroy white suburbs. “Let local communities do what’s best in their communities, and I would predict we’d end up with a freer and fairer society in 20 years than we have today,” Rick Manning, the president of Americans for Limited Government told Emily Badger of the Washington Post. “Far freer and fairer than anything that would be dictated from Washington.”

The Trump administration has already delayed enforcement of the AFFH rule, and had proposed to water it down. But last night Trump went after it altogether in a clear appeal to the white suburban voters he has been losing, and whose support he so badly needs in 2020. “At the request of many great Americans who live in the Suburbs, and others, I am studying the AFFH housing regulation that is having a devastating impact on these once thriving Suburban areas. Corrupt Joe Biden wants to make them MUCH WORSE. Not fair to homeowners, I may END!”

Click HERE

HERE is an excellent Podcast about redlining happening TODAY to black farmers

Day 15
1935: Lynchings of Labor Organizers

I know I have shared a lot of lynchings. There’s a reason: These lynchings were used to instill terror in blacks. They were a way to keep blacks from speaking up, from fighting the status quo, and to keep blacks dehumanized. And, sadly, they worked. Over 4,500 blacks were lynched (that we know about), and whites celebrated each and every one while bringing terror to the black community, leaving them wondering if the next lynching would be theirs.

Here’s a lynching to terrify blacks who deigned to ask for better working conditions:

On July 11, 1935, African American sharecropper Joe Spinner Johnson was working in a Dallas County, Alabama, cotton field when his white landlord summoned him. A mob of white men bound and beat Mr. Johnson, then took him to jail in Selma and beat him more. Witnesses in other cells heard Mr. Johnson’s screams. His mutilated body was found in a field days later.

After emancipation and well into the 20th century, sharecropping trapped black families in poverty as white landlords used deception, debt, and violence to exploit and control black labor. Mr. Johnson, a leader in the Alabama Sharecroppers Union, was lynched for organizing black people to demand fair wages and better working conditions.

During the era of racial terror, black activism was considered a threat to white supremacy and existing racial and economic hierarchies. White mobs, acting with impunity, lynched black people who participated in strikes or organized unions to demand better treatment. Sometimes violence targeted individuals like Mr. Johnson. Ernest Glenwood was lynched in Lily, Georgia, in September 1919 after he was accused of encouraging black workers to demand better pay.

In other cases, attacks devastated entire communities. In November 1887, when thousands of black sugar cane workers went on strike in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, armed white men descended on black residents, killing as many as 60 people and leaving hundreds missing and wounded. In a pattern of violence directed at black communities across the South, black people in Lafourche Parish were forced from their homes and land, required to flee to nearby cities as refugees from violence and lawlessness.

Sources/Comments:

Click HERE