Civic Cipher 031222 The Emmett Till Antilynching Act of 2022

I'll give you the deep dive a little bit later as a as a bonus, but we're going to talk about her a little bit because it's time to do our bibas segment to become a better ally. This comes from the Grio dot com of the one of Black America's most prominent female figures in the movement for civil rights will be honored this month, with the statue placed

in the United States Capitol Building's Sanctuary Hall. An eleven foot statue of Mary McLeod Bethune will soon be installed in the National Statuary Hall collection, meant to represent the state of Florida. According to the Washington Post, Bathoune will be the first Black American to specifically represent any state

among the collection of statues. Each state is given the opportunity to display two statues of prominent citizens in the hall, and Bethunes will place one of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith there since nineteen twenty two. That is why I wanted to talk about that, because you remember it might have been closer to two years ago now everybody was yanking down on statues and throwing them in the river.

I remember I came across something on Instagram that said, remember, racists don't have to be statues in order for you to throw them in the river. I thought that was the illest thing I ever read.

before because we had to. Makes all the sense in the world. This is a show for him. Emmettil lived. He's a forever fourteen year old. He was born July twenty fifth, nineteen forty one, and his last day was August twenty eighth, nineteen fifty five. He was a fourteen year old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in nineteen fifty five after being accused of offending a white

woman in her family's grocery store. The brutality of his murder in the fact that his killers were acquitted drew attention to the long history of violent persecution of African Americans in the United States. Till posthumously became an icon of the civil rights movement. Now that is just one brief paragraph from Wikipedia about Emmitt Till. I want to call him a man because he's my elder, but he didn't live past fourteen, so he was very much a boy.

Forgive us if you've heard this before, but we have to kind of make this breathe a little bit. He goes into the store. He's visiting from Chicago, I believe right, goes down to Mississippi to visit some of his family. Goes into a store in Mississippi. The store is owned by a white family. He sees the girl in the store who's a member of the white family that owns the store, and he does like a sort of a whistle, like a like a a whistle that shows sort of

romantic interests. I don't know what it's called, but it's like a I don't want to try to whistle on the radio because I'll get it wrong. Anyway, he does a little whistle and he says something like, you know, bye baby, something like that. Right, and then it might have been the next day or later that night, a group of men break into his house, you know exactly where to find him, break into his house, snatch him out of the bed, and he was never seen alive

again by his family. They beat him, of course, I believe they dragged his body and they like dumped him in the river. And the reason that this became because, you know, black people were getting killed a lot. I'm not much has changed, but you know, the reason that his story got national attention is because how grotesque his body looked after the murder. And his mother decided to have an open casket funeral, right, and so all the

photographers and the cameras were there. If you google it, if you are you know, trigger warning, because obviously it's a dead person person had a lot of promise in his life. You can see what that open casket funeral look like. And those images were shared everywhere that was what started. That's what put the gasoline on the civil rights movement, and that's what let you know, our forefathers on this fight show the world, Look what they're doing to us, Look what they're doing to our babies, and

they are not held accountable for it. They can just do this and everybody's okay with it. Right later, those guys actually admitted, Yeah, that's what they did, you know. And and the woman on her deathbed, I believe if Dave Chappelle's right, because I remember him talking about it, go ahead, tell me she's not dead. I don't believe she's not, okay, but I remember him saying.

my alley. Obviously I love this well, I don't love this stuff, but I'm you know, you and I we share on the show before, but we're the sons of ministers, and a lot of times in the black community, the minister is the person who is the keeper of not just the faith, but the culture. And so being in an environment where there's a person who is kind of that keeper, we get a heavy dose of our black history. So, yeah, eighty eight years ago, by the way, oh she still

I how about that? Well, Dave Chappelle said that that lie, as egregious as it is, might have been the thing necessary to change the course of this country because had she not told that lie, had em It not been killed, had his mom not been a gangster and leave that coffin open at the funeral to show the world with they did to her baby. Had those pictures not gotten taken, you know that civil rights movement that did move us forward as citizens in this country, all of us, white

people included, white women included. You know, we're all here together. It's easier to love each other than it is to fight. We're going to have happier lives. I promise that. Don't let them divide us. Anyway. Had she not told that lie, we might not have been able to take that step as soon as we did. You know, now, the reason I wanted to tell you that is because this Anti Lynching Act of twenty twenty two is named after Emmett till Right. Those fourteen years of his life are still

affecting us right now. Again, his last day was August twenty eighth and nineteen fifty five. This bills passed this year, in twenty twenty two. So that's not nothing. You know. I know that everyone wants to live a full, long life, but I think a lot of people want a life that matters, that causes something special to come about, you know, some sort of legacy, you know, that sort of thing, and them naming this bill after him contributes to that legacy.

You don't want to just be the person who is known for dying, you know, and unfortunately that's true here. But now his name will stand for rather more. Same with George Floyd. You know, nobody wants to you know, people want to live. Man, you know you're going to die, hopefully accounts or something. He obviously did not die of good death, but it was a meaningful one, as it ended up turning out. Unfortunately he didn't get to experience that.

But I'll read this. This comes from CNN. The Senate passed the Emitt Till Anti Lynching Act of twenty twenty two on Monday night by unanimous consent. The bill, which would have made which would make lynching a federal hate crime, now hits the President Joe Biden's desk for signature. Legislation was approved by the House of Representatives last week. I voted four twenty two to three. I means only three

people voted against it. Three people voted against it. We don't have to focus on them, I know.

Snort and the waffle house. They were kind to me there and it looks and sounds exactly like you think. But yeah, Bucksnorth Tennessee. But yeah, this place is all over the place, and they can elect these people. But the Senate, it was unanimous passage of the bill. This one might kind of trigger you a bit que but passage of the bill is a long sought goal of advocates who have been working for years to secure its

approval in Congress. So yeah, you know, we we we know that sometimes our fights are a little bit harder than they should be. We know that we are denied our humanity often, certainly more often than our less melanated brothers and sisters.

floor after the bill's passage. That it took so long to pass is a quote bitter stain in quote on America, the New York Democrat added. The first anti lynching legislation was introduced a century ago, and after so long, the Senate has now finally addressed one of the most shameful elements of this nation's past by making lynching a federal hate crime. He said, Now, the.

This is obviously a huge deal and for the people that fought for this and dedicated their life to getting this across the finish line that passed away and didn't get to see it make its way to the light, which at the time that we're doing this show hasn't quite made it there yet. But all it takes is Biden's signature and everyone knows that he's going to sign it.

For all those people, I think it's something special. But I do have to say, just because I have to say it, I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason that now it is getting the sort of unanimous vote and the overwhelming numbers and the overwhelming amount of support, I think it has more to do with the unfortunate crimes that have been committed against mine and your Asian American and Pacific Islander brothers and sisters over the past couple of years than it has to do with Emmett

Till himself or those types of crimes against What I'm saying is crimes against black people have never really resonated in the way that black people would have hoped. This is part of the reason why we have to say our lives matter. The matter to us if no one else you know, But I think that you know, because of the mistreatment of our AAPI brothers and sisters, that this has kind of been given a new renewed interest

and there's been some invigorated, impassioned momentum behind it. And that's all well and good, you know, because we stand in solidarity with our aapi, brothers and sisters. We do it literally on the show and out in the streets, you know. And if that's what it takes to get us all to the finish line, then so be it. Sometimes we got to carry them to the finish line, you know, And maybe this time that's that's how we got it there. But the point is we got there.

It just feels like, you know, in the first half for the show, in case you missed it, we were talking about very much how it feels to be black, and how these little tiny things that by themselves are easily overlooked, they tend to add up to. Rather more, they tend to add up to. We need to affirm the value of our lives, that our consciousness should matter, that we have. We are entitled to dignity, and we

are entitled to live full, long, happy lives. And this is just a kind of a random thing, but I've been saying it a lot lately. I've read it and I've been sharing it with my friends. I'm saying this because I do believe it's important that we're happy too. We weren't just born to fight and struggle and try to overcome. We shall overcome you know none of that. We should be able to be happy too, and so I'll say it up. Black joy is a radical act.

It's crazy to think about it, but just being happy and black at the same time is something that will catch a lot of people's attention, Like, what are they so happy for? They must be up to something. What did they do? You know? Have you ever gone for a run?

Whoever conspires to commit any offense under paragraph one two or three shall if death or serious bodily injury as defined in Section twenty two to forty six of this title results from the offense be imprisoned for not more than thirty years find in accordance with this title or both right. The point is that it's now law right. And then number six other conspiracies. Whoever conspires to commit

any offense under paragraph one two or three. Shall if death or serious bodily injury as defined in Section twenty two to forty six of this Title results from the offense, or if the offense includes kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to kill, be imprisoned for not more than thirty years, find in accordance with this title, or both. So both of those, and pending that signature, it will be law.

to sound the way that it does. But perhaps there are less of my aapi brothers and sisters that are affected by that, or you know that we don't have a real big ally outside of just the people who clearly see it, you know, but there's no you know, what let me say it this way. The Republicans, because that's really where the opposition lies, are very much in opposition to it because it represents a loss of power, right.

And I wish that we had the same type of capacity to collaborate with like I said, our AAPI brothers and sisters, are you know some other group that was affected by this in the same way, and that we could have the strength collectively to offset the opposition. But we're still working on it and we will continue to

do so. And we really need to fight back against this critical race theory, which is unfortunately wrongly used interchangeably with American history, because when they say they don't want to teach critical race theory, what they're actually doing is

removing American history from the schools. And they've used critical race theory to kind of blanket over American history and remove American history from the schools because effectively, anything it has to do with race that makes anybody feel a little bit bad now qualifies as you know whatever, and they've demonized the term. And so anyway, those are the next things that we need to work on. We need to educate our youth so that they know better. We need to do to grow open fear. We need to

get our voting rights secured. But for now, we do have an anti lynching bill on the books. And you know, I say it all the time, but mostly because it's true and I mean it. That's not nothing. So in Matil, baby boy, you know, thank you very much much for your life and I guess your sacrifice. And you know now there's there's a rule on the federal books to ensure that if somebody does something you know your your name is going to live on in the name of

justice now instead of just being someone who lived and died. Now, let's suckle back to Mary McLeod Bethune. This is Women's History month, right, yes it is, and.

the river. And we didn't get to tell you fully who she was, but we're going to spend a little bit of time bringing her to life because that may not be a name that you know. Again, we make a black show for non black people. So the assumption here is that we're sharing some new information with you, but if not, it's always great to have a refresher. Obviously, this is a way black history fact, so we like to make these names live a little bit more if

we can. This comes from Women's History dot Org, and I will read. The daughter of former slaves, Mary Jane McLeod Bethune became one of the most important black educators, sybil and women's rights leaders, and government officials of the twentieth century. The college she founded set educational standards for today's black colleges, and her role as an advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave African Americans an advocate in government.

Born on July tenth, eighteen seventy five, near Maysville, South Carolina, Bethune was one of the last of Samuel and Paste Mcloud's seventeen children. Dang After the Civil War, her mother worked for her former owner until she could buy the land on which the family grew cotton. By age nine, Bethune could pick two hundred and fifty pounds of cotton a day. Bethune benefited from efforts to educate African Americans after the war, graduating in eighteen ninety four from the

Scotia Seminary, a boarding school in North Carolina. Bethune next attended Dwight Moody's Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago, Illinois, but with no church willing to sponsor her as a missionary, Bethune became an educator. While teaching in South Carolina, she married fellow teacher, albertus Un, with whom she had a son. In eighteen ninety nine, the Beathuns moved to Palatka, Florida, where Mary worked at the Presbyterian Church and also sold insurance.

In nineteen oh four, her marriage ended, and determined to support her son, Bethune opened a boarding school, the Daytona Beach Literary and Industrial School for training Negro girls. Eventually, Bethune's school became a college, merging with the All Mile Cookman Institute to form Bethune Cookman College in nineteen twenty nine.

It issued its first degrees in nineteen forty three. A champion of racial and gender equality, Bethune founded many organizations and led voter registration drives after women gained the vote in nineteen twenty, risking racist attacks. In nineteen twenty four, she was elected president of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, and in nineteen thirty five she became the

founding president of the National Council of Negro Women. Bethune also played a role in the transition of black voters the Republican Party the Party of Lincoln, to the Democratic Party during the Great Depression. A friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, in nineteen thirty six, Bethune became the highest ranking African American women in government when President Franklin Roosevelt named her the Director of Negro Affairs and of the National Youth Administration,

where she remained until nineteen forty four. She was also a leader of FDR's unofficial Black Cabinet. In nineteen thirty seven, Bethune organized a conference on the problems of the Negro and Negro youth and fought to indiscrimination and lynching. In nineteen forty she became vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons NAACP, a position she

held for the rest of her life. As a member of the advisory board that in nineteen forty two created the Women's Army Corps, Bethune ensured it was racially integrated. Appointed by President Harry S. Truman, Bethune was the only woman of color at the founding Conference of the United

Nations in nineteen forty five. She regularly wrote for leading African American newspapers, The Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Defender, and finally, additionally, Bethune was a businesswoman who co owned a Daytona, Florida resort, and co founded the Central Life Insurance Company of Tampa. Honored with many awards, Bethune's life was celebrated with a memorial statue in Washington, d c. In nineteen seventy four, a postage stamp in nineteen eighty five,

and her final residence is a National Historic Site. And of course, more recently she got a statue an eleven foot tall statue. Let me say it again, Yes, eleven foot stall statue in the National Statuary Hall collection, which is meant to represent the state of Florida, which she spent a good amount of time. So that is, you know what. I'm glad that we got to do that for Women's History Month too.