CRT History: Election of Black Sheriff Leads To Massacre of Hundreds of Blacks

December 7, 1874, Blacks rallied in support of Sheriff Peter Crosby in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Crosby, a former slave, had been legally elected but the whites refused to recognize his authority and falsified evidence of bribes and corruption and got the board of supervisors in the county to remove him.

On this day when the black population of the county tried to host a rally for Crosby white mobs attacked and began randomly killing blacks. The mobs were declared a “Militia” and began hunting down negros sweeping into black neighborhoods and the outlying black areas where planters and sharecroppers lived. Killing as many blacks as possible and white Republicans.

Southern newspapers such as the “Republican Banner” in Memphis and the New Orleans Bulletin reported on this mob violence as a war for Vicksburg and claimed that hundreds of blacks were armed and marching on the city to massacre whites. These were lies.

Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames refused to request federal troops at this time and issued a proclamation calling the incident a riot. He did call the state legislature into special session to her of the causes and see if there was anything to be done as violence continued for weeks, eventually, he did request federal aid and in January President Grant sent in troops to restore order. They restored Crosby to the office after an investigation. Crosby made a white man named J.P. Gilmer his undersheriff. Gilmer shot Crosby in June of 1875 but was never arrested. In fact while as many as 300 blacks were killed no one was ever charged with any crime

Sources:

https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/dec/07

https://www.newspapers.com/image/604770210/?terms=Vicksburg&match=1

https://www.newspapers.com/image/604770210/?terms=Vicksburg&match=1

https://www.newspapers.com/image/604770210/?terms=Vicksburg&match=1

 

Forgotten History: U.S. Marines Massacre Peacful Protestors in Haiti

December 6, 1929, The United States Marine Corps had been occupying Haiti to protect private U.S. corporate interests for nearly 15 years and an increasingly restless population had declared a national general strike, in response the U.S. and the figurehead government declared martial law.  

On December 6 protesters began marching on the port of Les Cayes peacefully. They were protesting the economic conditions of the nation and Les Cayes is the largest port where shipments of sugar cane and tobacco are shipped. The protestors were reported to be requesting the release of three protest organizers and strike leaders. Marines who were standing guard on the outside of the city had machine guns and as the large crowd advanced made requests, but the Haitians threw rocks and cut threw the sugar cane fields. This apparently unsettled and panicked the marines and they fired into the crowd killing 22 and wounding over 50. In response to international protests, U.S. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson defended the marines stating the patrols showed, “great forbearance and judgment.”

President Hoover ordered 500 more marines to Haiti the same day and two naval warships. The senate also passed a $500,000 appropriation to study the situation and determine what was causing the “Rebellious attacks and attitude,” of the Haitian people.

This senate investigation evolved to become The Forbes Commission which after taking time to look into the occupation declared it a failure and recommended the withdrawal of the American Marines from Haiti as soon as possible. This finally did happen in 1934.s

Sources:

http://islandluminous.fiu.edu/part08-slide19.html

https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/massacres-perpetrated-20th-century-haiti.html

https://www.newspapers.com/image/543684340/?terms=Les%20Cayes&match=1

 

Forgotten History: Supreme Court Rules "Get married and Lose Your Citizenship"

December 6, 1915, On this day the Supreme court handed down one of their worst rulings and upheld part of the Expatriation Act of 1907 which stripped women of their citizenship if they married non-citizens of the U.S.

The 1907 act read in part that, “Any American woman who marries a foreigner shall take the nationality of her husband.” There was language in the act that said a woman could get her citizenship back if the marriage was terminated, however, there were limitations in this regarding reporting the American counsel if in their husband’s nation. However, American men who married foreign women were permitted to keep their citizenship.

In Mackenzie v. Hare the plaintiff Ethel Mackenzie sued the Election Board of San Francisco and the State of California after she was barred from voting under the grounds, she had voluntarily given up her citizenship (In California at the time women had the right to vote)

The court ruled that the status of marriage is an older and more important one than U.S., citizenship and so there was nothing unconstitutional about the Expatriation Act. It was added in the judgment that these were consequences women went into a marriage knowing so the woman found it acceptable.

This Expatriation Act remained in effect this way until 1922 when it was revised, the revision was only for women marrying European husbands, and extreme rules regarding the citizenship of Asians remained in effect until the reformation of immigration law in the 1960s. In 2014 the U.S., Senate passed a resolution apologizing to women who gave up their citizenship. 

Sources:

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/239/299/

https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/260mackenzie-hare.html

https://immigrationhistory.org/item/an-act-in-reference-to-the-expatriation-of-citizens-and-their-protection-abroad/

 

History Snapshot: Cornelius Coffee An Average Lynching

December 3, 1892, Cornelius Coffee was said to be a “Tough Colored Man” and when the constables in the town of Keystone, West Virginia went to arrest him for being a vagrant and creating civil disobedience while drinking too much after his payday on November 29. Coffee shot the two officers killing one named Dillon and wounding one named Burton.

Coffee fled catching a train into Virginia, but a conductor named Griffith recognized him and telegraphed the sheriff in Pocahontas who arrested Coffee. Keystone authorities were notified and Detective Eugene Robinson escorted Coffee back to Keystone when they arrived a mob was waiting and pulled Coffee from the train and took him to a tree near the tracks. The mob proceeded to hang him from the tree and riddle his body with bullets.

No one was ever charged in his extra-judicial murder

 

The Ground Breaker : Richard Pryor Born December 1, 1940

Richard Pryor was the most influential and groundbreaking comedian of all time, a performer and writer who shattered stereotypes and boundaries. Pryor survived a youth of violence and abuse and cultural racism. Pryor used all of that history to create his stage performances and writing. Live on stage his comedy was profane and socially astute, provoking thought as well as laughter. As a writer, he earned an Emmy, in addition to five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums. A veteran of more than 40 feature films Pryor survived a debilitating drug addiction, in fact, he nearly died after lighting himself on fire while he "freebased" cocaine in 1980. To the astonishment of many, recovered and went on to become one of the biggest movie stars of the day in films like "Stir Crazy" (1980) and "Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip" (1982). Unfortunately, the effects of multiple sclerosis began to erode his once formidable ability, beginning in 1986 and ultimately debilitating the comedian by the end of the decade. Cited as a major influence by the likes of Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock, Pryor not only expanded the definition of comedy, but also the social and racial boundaries that had previously defined its audience. 

 

Rosa Parks Day, 67th anniversary of Beginning of Montgomery Bus Boycott

December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for disobeying the bus segregation laws of the city

 

Forgotten History: The Jacksonville Mutiny and Executions

December 1, 1865, The Civil War had ended but even for Negro volunteers in the Union Army racism was an everyday reality. This was never more evident than the morning of October 29, 1865, an African-­American private in the Union army named Jacob Plowden stepped out of his tent at Camp Shaw in Jacksonville, Florida, to witness a horrific sight. On the parade ground, two white officers had tied a shirtless Black soldier by his thumbs to a scaffold. The man was dangling in agony, the toes of his feet barely touching the ground as his thumbs were pulled away from their sockets.

Plowden lost his temper. An ex-slave from Tennessee who had become a farmer in Pennsylvania before enlisting in the Union army in 1863, he was appalled to see black soldiers treated with the sort of brutality inflicted on slaves in the South. He roused his fellow soldiers in the 3rd Regiment of the U.S. Colored Troops, shouting that he’d rather die than see any more men tortured.

Several dozen black soldiers advanced across the field toward the prisoner and the white officers, Lieutenant George Graybill and Lieutenant John L. Brower, the regiment’s commander. The army had been extreme with punishment to black soldiers, this was a reminder of a Freeman’s overall place in post-war society, particularly in Florida. When the black soldiers got within five yards, Brower drew his revolver and fired several shots at them, wounding one man in the chest and arm.

The soldiers ran back to their tents, quickly reemerged with their weapons, and began shooting at the white officers and others who came to their assistance. Brower was wounded in the thumb and collapsed in pain, one of many injuries suffered by participants on both sides in the melee. After brief but furious fighting, order was restored in the camp, and Plowden and others were arrested for what came to be known as the Jacksonville Mutiny.

The soldier that was being disciplined with the thumb screws was accused of stealing from the camp stores which was the reason for such rough treatment that these other men tried to interfere with what was deemed proper discipline by their superiors which led to the death sentences. Also, the camp was in Florida which was still considered in a state of rebellion as each state was signing the surrender papers and Florida had not yet. So discipline was considered extremely important. The speedy trials resulted in death sentences for six men

·       David Craig

·       Joseph Green

·       James Allen

·       Jacob Plowden

·       Joseph Nathaniel

·       Thomas Howard

The men were executed by firing squad, and as another insulting discipline, Black soldiers from the company were ordered to perform the execution.

The non-executed mutineers who received prison terms (up to 15 years) had their sentences commuted following a review in 1866. The rest of the regiment mustered out as scheduled at the end of October, two days after the Jacksonville Mutiny.

Sources https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4536&context=fhq