1971-1975
Day 51
1971: “War on Drugs” A Ruse To Incarcerate Black Men (no, really, Nixon’s people admit it)
Many of the stories “I” write, are not written by me. Originally I hoped they would be, but it was taking too much time for me to rewrite everything, and so I often share what was written before. I always cite the source in the comments, but today is another example of a post mostly written by the incredible Equal Justice Initiative. I will try to do better at saying what posts I write vs. what others write:
After President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs” in 1971 (he said drug use was “public enemy number one”), the number of people incarcerated in American jails and prisons escalated from 300,000 to 2.3 million. Half of those in federal prison are incarcerated for a drug offense, and two-thirds of those in prison for drug offenses are people of color. Disproportionate arrest, conviction, and sentencing rates for drug offenses have devastated communities of color in America.
Between 1980 and 2011, arrests of African Americans for violent and property crimes fell, but rose dramatically for drug offenses. As the Washington Post reported, African Americans are far more likely to be arrested for selling or possessing drugs than whites, even though whites use drugs at the same rate and are more likely to sell drugs.
In a new article for Harper’s magazine, journalist Dan Baum reports that President Richard Nixon’s domestic policy chief, John Ehrlichman, admitted that the war on drugs was designed to have precisely this impact on the Black community.
In a 1994 interview, Mr. Ehrlichman said, “You want to know what this was really all about?” He went on:
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and Black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
President Nixon’s creation of a war on drugs to criminalize Black people amplified the presumption of guilt assigned to Black people since slavery and entrenched the racialization of criminality that began in earnest with lynching.
The Nixon Administration’s strategy of using drugs to “vilify [African Americans] night after night on the evening news” fostered a politics of fear and anger that reached frenzied heights in the 1990s. Sensationalist media accounts of “soaring” crime rates in the 1980s and early 1990s combined with extraordinary resentment about rehabilitation programs within prisons to create a political environment in which every elected official sought to be “tough on crime.” Decrying that “[g]angs and drugs have taken over our streets and undermined our schools,” President Bill Clinton in 1994 signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, allotting $12.5 billion to states to increase incarceration.
Congress has recently taken steps to reduce disparities in drug sentencing laws, and is considering important reforms that would begin to address the campaign of racialized mass incarceration launched by the Nixon Administration more than four decades ago.
Sources/Comments:
Click HERE
Day 52
1972: Forty Year "Study” Ends In Which Black Patients Told They Were Given Free Health Care, Instead Used As Lab Rats And Given No Treatment For 40 Years
From Wikipedia:
The U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee was a clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the United States Public Health Service. The purpose of this study was to observe the natural history of untreated syphilis; the African-American men in the study were only told they were receiving free health care from the Federal government of the United States.
The United States Public Health Service started the study in 1932 in collaboration with Tuskegee University (then the Tuskegee Institute), a historically black college in Alabama. Investigators enrolled in the study a total of 600 impoverished, African-American sharecroppers from Macon County, Alabama. Of these men, 399 had latent syphilis, with a control group of 201 men who were not infected. As an incentive for participation in the study, the men were promised free medical care, but were deceived by the PHS, who disguised placebos, ineffective methods, and diagnostic procedures as treatment.
The men who had syphilis were never informed of their diagnosis, despite the risk of infecting others, and the fact that the disease could lead to blindness, deafness, mental illness, heart disease, bone deterioration, collapse of the central nervous system, and death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the men were told that they were being treated for "bad blood,” a colloquialism that described various conditions such as syphilis, anemia and fatigue. "Bad blood"—specifically the collection of illnesses the term included—was a leading cause of death within the southern African-American community. The men were initially told that the study was only going to last six months, but it was extended to 40 years. After funding for treatment was lost, the study was continued without informing the men that they would never be treated. None of the infected men were treated with penicillin despite the fact that by 1947, the antibiotic had become the standard treatment for syphilis.
Study clinicians could have chosen to treat all syphilitic subjects and close the study, or split off a control group for testing with penicillin. Instead, they continued the study without treating any participants; they withheld treatment and information about it from the subjects. In addition, scientists prevented participants from accessing syphilis treatment programs available to other residents in the area. The study continued, under numerous Public Health Service supervisors, until 1972, when a leak to the press resulted in its termination on November 16 of that year. The victims of the study, all African-American, included numerous men who died of syphilis, 40 wives who contracted the disease and 19 children born with congenital syphilis.
The 40-year Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the African American Male study was a major violation of ethical standards. Researchers knowingly failed to treat participants appropriately after penicillin was proven to be an effective treatment for syphilis and became widely available. Moreover, participants remained ignorant of the study clinicians’ true purpose, which was to observe the natural course of untreated syphilis. The revelation in 1972 of study failures by a whistleblower, Peter Buxtun, led to major changes in U.S. law and regulation concerning the protection of participants in clinical studies. Now studies require informed consent, communication of diagnosis and accurate reporting of test results.
The U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee, cited as "arguably the most infamous biomedical research study in U.S. history," led to the 1979 Belmont Report and to the establishment of the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP). It also led to federal laws and regulations requiring institutional review boards for the protection of human subjects in studies involving them. The OHRP manages this responsibility within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
On May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton formally apologized on behalf of the United States to victims of the study.
Sources/Comments:
The picture breaks my heart. The man believes he is getting help, getting treatment. Instead, he is being deceived by the doctor- lied to for some absurd study. It’s very Nazi-esque, how they “experimented” on Jews, but really just tortured them.
Click HERE
Also, THIS and THIS Podcast episodes really break this down and get into the nitty gritty of this study. It's so heartbreaking, and should be criminal.
Day 53
1973: San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez Rules There Is No Constitutional Right to Equal Funding in Education
From the Equal Justice Initiative:
An investigative team including more than 20 NPR member-station reporters found that contemporary inequalities in school funding stem from America’s history of racial injustice.
In Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case striking down racial segregation in schools, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that the opportunity of an education “where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.” Less than two decades later, in 1973, the Court abandoned this commitment to equal education when it held in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez that there is no constitutional right to equal funding in education.
Today, public schools across America remain racially segregated, and the achievement gap between the wealthiest and poorest students is growing dramatically. In a series of stories examining school funding disparities, reporters set out to explain why, for example, a Chicago school district serving mostly low-income students has only $9,794 to spend per child annually (well below the national average of $11,841) while a nearby suburban district spends $28,639 per child.
In Chicago and across the country, because school funding relies heavily on local property taxes, the simple answer is that these disparities stem from differences in property values. And from Chicago to Alabama and beyond, differences in property values can be traced to racially discriminatory housing policies and tax laws.
In Sumter County, Alabama, NPR reported that crumbling public schools whose students are mainly low-income are forced to rely on funding from tax rates on farm and timberland, which is taxed at well below market value. Schools in the rural county lack working bathrooms, reek of mold from leaking roofs, and lack funds to repair broken windows, peeling paint, and cracked floors. Sumter’s public school students are all African American, although about a quarter of the county’s population is white. Many white families send their children to a local private school or to schools outside the area.
Advocates have tried twice in recent years to raise local tax rates, but local voters have the final say, and both measures failed. While some states send money to districts like Sumter that serve many disadvantaged students to even out funding levels, Alabama does not. When families from Sumter filed a lawsuit arguing that Alabama’s school funding system is racially discriminatory, a federal judge wrote an 800-page opinion detailing the historical racial discrimination underlying Alabama’s tax laws, but denied the plaintiffs relief.
NPR reported that at least 31 states spent less money per student in 2014 than in 2008, and during the same period, local funding dropped in 18 states. Schools in low-income districts have cut back drastically; some have even cut a day from the school week. In the wake of the Great Recession, schools serving kids living in poverty have less local money and higher costs than more affluent districts. And reforms in some states meant to direct money to low-income districts not only have been inadequate to level the playing field for underfunded schools, but have actually further enriched affluent districts with state funds.
Contemporary inequalities in school funding stem from America’s history of racial injustice.
Sources/Comments:
Click HERE for what the map is showing
For a detailed analysis of what segregation in schools looks like today (and how it negatively affects minorities), THIS Podcast is excellent.
This SCOTUS has so many ramifications! Basically, it said that school funding does not need to be equalized in any way. So, if you live in a rich neighborhood, your property tax dollars will get you more funding because your house is worth more and you pay more in taxes. But, if you live in a poor (read: minority) area where your neighborhood has been red lined for decades and therefore the home values are low, and therefore your taxes low, your schools will get far less funding. So, now as a country our schools are segregated and totally not equal. Pretty much like 1965.
It is a complicated mess- I had no idea that so much of the current mess we are in stems from this one SCOTUS decision.
Day 54
1974: Gary Tyler Spends 41 Years In Jail For Made Up Charges After Whites Attacked Him
Read this carefully- SO MANY disgusting injustices happened to this poor man, who was only 16 years old when this happened! I CAN NOT believe he spent 41 years in jail for doing NOTHING wrong! This is so shameful, and that it ever happened and continues to happen is shameful! Imagine if your SIXTEEN year old was sentenced to death for a crime he/she didn’t commit and then spent 41 years in prison! It’s so horrifying.
From the Equal Justice Initiative:
Gary Tyler was just 16 years old when he was charged with shooting a white student in 1974. He was sentenced to death by an all-white jury and spent nearly 42 years in Louisiana’s notorious Angola Prison before his release this weekend.
On October 7, 1974, Gary Tyler, a sophomore at Destrehan High School in St. Charles Parish, was on a bus with other Black students when the bus was attacked by a segregationist mob of 100 to 200 white students and adults. Members of the crowd yelled racial slurs and threw bottles and rocks at the bus, and someone fired a shot that hit and killed 13-year-old Timothy Weber.
Sheriff’s deputies searched the bus and the students on board, but found no weapon. Gary spoke up to a deputy and was arrested for disturbing the peace, beaten while in custody, and charged with murder. Law enforcement claimed they then found, on one of the bus seats, a large pistol that had been taken from a firing range used by sheriff’s deputies; the gun has since disappeared. Witnesses who testified against Mr. Tyler at trial later recanted, revealing that police had used threats to force them to testify falsely.
Mr. Tyler’s death sentence was converted to life imprisonment without parole after Louisiana’s mandatory death penalty was struck down. In 1981, a federal appeals court found that his conviction was unconstitutional but denied him a new trial. He remained at Angola, the nation’s most violent prison, and was held in solitary confinement for eight years. Mr. Tyler emerged as a mentor and leader whom the Louisiana Pardon Board recommended for a pardon three times.
Activists for racial justice coalesced around Mr. Tyler’s case and have long advocated for his release. In 1976, Rosa Parks spoke at a rally in support of Mr. Tyler. “If there is any strength that I have left,” she said, “I will do whatever I can to help free this young brother.”
In 2012, EJI won a ruling from the United States Supreme Court striking down mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles in Miller v. Alabama. The State of Louisiana refused to apply the ruling to people who were sentenced before the court’s decision, but in January, the Supreme Court ruled that Miller is retroactive.
Mr. Tyler, now 57, entered a guilty plea on Friday and was sentenced to 21 years. He was released that afternoon.
“It is long past time for Gary Tyler to come home,” Mr. Tyler’s defense team, headed by attorney George H. Kendall, said in a statement. “Hopefully this agreement will help to put this case to rest for Gary, the loved ones of Tim Weber and St. Charles Parish.”
Sources/Comments:
I got into it yesterday with a person who tried to mansplain to me that blacks need to learn personal responsibility and they bring their punishments on themselves. THIS IS WHY WE MUST EDUCATE OURSELVES!!!!! Tens of thousands of innocent young men have been incarcerated simply because of the color of their skin! I am going to mention a few of them, but for every one, there are thousands more. How can you take personal responsibility when you are locked up for something you DIDN'T DO????? This, above all else, infuriates me the most....and then to have someone totally ignorant, who has never researched beyond his own white privilege bias, try to tell me that blacks are the ones at fault, oh my blood boils just thinking of it!
Click HERE
Day 55
1975: Ricky Jackson Spends 39 Years In Jail After “Witness” Lies on Stand
Another life destroyed because of a failed justice system. Honestly, it’s too much! The justice system must change- this is NOT ok! There’s thousands of stories like this- it hurts.
From the Equal Justice Initiative:
Ricky Jackson was just 18 years old when he and two others, Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman, were convicted in the 1975 murder of Harold Franks after 12-year-old Eddie Vernon testified he saw the attack. All three men were sentenced to death. Mr. Jackson’s death sentence was vacated and the Bridgemans’ sentences were overturned when Ohio’s death penalty was found unconstitutional in 1978. Ronnie Bridgeman was released after serving more than 25 years in prison and is now seeking to clear his name; Wiley Bridgeman was freed today.
Prosecutors dropped the charges against Ricky Jackson after Eddie Vernon recanted and admitted that he did not witness the crime at all. Vernon said a friend had given him the men’s names, and after he told authorities the names and that he’d seen the killing, Cleveland police fed him information about the crime and what happened. Several people confirmed the boy was on a school bus nowhere near the crime scene at the time of the crime.
No other evidence linked the men to the murder. A gun and car seen at the crime scene were linked to a man who was arrested in 1978 for another murder, but he was never charged in Franks’ murder. In dropping the charges against Jackson, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said, “The state is conceding the obvious.”
Ricky Jackson will be the 148th person exonerated from death row in the U.S. since 1973, the fifth in 2014, and the seventh in Ohio since 1973.
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