From the /r/AskHistorians mod team:
Multiple histories of US police violence against the Black community are being written this week. They’ve taken the form of tweet threads, news articles, blog posts, and conversations among friends, loved ones, and even strangers on the internet. Amidst these waves of information, we as historians want our readers to remember the following:
Police brutality against Black people is woven into the fabric of the history of policing in the US—and reflects the historical reality that white America benefits from police and state violence against the Black community. George Floyd’s murder and the brutal suppression of the ensuing protests are the latest in a long history of police brutality and excessive, extraordinary violence.
As historians like Edward Ayers and Sam Mitrani have established, the construct of American policing was formed between roughly 1840-1880 on the crest of two trends. First, rising population density in cities brought middle-class and wealthy white Americans into close contact with people they considered disruptive to their orderly world: sex workers, impoverished drunk people, Black residents, immigrants. Second, a spiralling urban trend towards wage labor for larger corporations that was itself a disruption in some of the institutions that had previously guarded local order, like families and close-knit neighborhoods.
From their establishment in the mid- to late-19th century, American police forces have depended on their mandate to keep or restore the white, wealthy ideal of order and the active support or tacit acceptance of this ongoing role by the majority of white Americans.
The history of lynching demonstrates this point with sickening clarity and is one we all should know. To highlight just one incident from the thousands that occured: a mob of white people dragged prosperous Black farmer Anthony Crawford from the Abbeville, South Carolina jail in full sight of the jailer and local sheriff on October 21, 1916. Crawford had been beaten and stabbed earlier that day; he was beaten again, possibly to death, hanged, and shot multiple times. His heinous crime? He accused a white man of trying to cheat him financially, and defended himself when a group of white men attacked him in response.
John Hammond Moore has offered that one motivation for the lynching was a rumor the sheriff was going to help Crawford escape and the white murderers believed the police presence was not doing its job of keeping order according to their definition of “order.” However, when the sheriff and jailer looked the other way, they delegated their role of keeping order to the mob, empowering them to act on their behalf.
In Crawford’s case, it is easy to connect the dots between white people affording police the responsibility to keep order, white people benefiting from white supremacy, and state participation in unjust violence, not least because of the direct involvement of white civilians. We can easily see Crawford’s lynching as part of an broader phenomenon, not just an individual, extraordinary event. In effect, the police did - and kept doing - what white people wanted. A decade later, the Illinois Crime Survey highlighted:
By the 1920s, research pioneered by women scholars at the University of Chicago was already highlighting how stereotypes around “slum environment” turned residents into perceived criminals. They observed that the Black neighborhoods defined as "slums" exhibited precisely the same "disorderly" characteristics that had spurred the creation of official police departments in the previous century. And they observed how these conditions were the result of pervasive, systemic white supremacy.
Additionally, social workers documented how school segregation and the massive underfunding of Black schools by city politicians contributed to those same conditions, creating a feedback loop; The disorder the police were approved to combat was created by the lack of funding and resources. The ideal of order that the majority of white Chicagoans found attractive, in other words, both justified and resulted from police violence against their Black neighbors.
The nature of a survey, like the Illinois Crime Survey, demonstrates the same thing we recognize in lynching: individual cases of state violence against Black Americans, whatever the specific circumstances, are part of a pattern. But while the specter of lynching haunts the fringes of American crime, the pattern of police brutality against the Black community has not let up. In 2015, Jamil Smith showed how the final moments of some many of those killed by police across the decades echoed each other, again and again.
From the Fugitive Slave Act to George Floyd, examples of police violence against Black Americans are endless, gruesome, and there for everyone to see and behold. In 1942, Private Thomas Foster was beaten and shot four times by Little Rock police officers after intervening to stop the assault of a fellow soldier. In 1967, a cab driver named John William Smith was savagely beaten by the Newark police. In 1984, New York City police officers shot Eleanor Bumpurs multiple times as they tried to evict her, making the call that getting her out of her apartment was more important than accommodating her mental health struggles. We could list hundreds, if not thousands, further such examples that illustrate this pattern.
But it’s not enough to say, “here are a bunch of examples of police officers brutalizing Black people.” The ability of individual officers to assault and kill Black Americans year after year, decade after decade, murder after murder, stems from the unwillingness of the white majority to step beyond protesting individual cases or do to more than stroke our chins and say, “Yes, I see a pattern.”
That pattern exists because despite every act of police brutality, and even despite protests following individual acts, white America’s preference for an "orderly" society has been a higher priority. From the inception of official police forces in the mid-19th century, to school truancy officers and border patrol, the American police have existed at the will of the white majority to keep and restore order, as defined by the white majority, using the "necessary" force, as defined by the mostly white police force and legal system.
When we come to write the history of the last few days, we need to remember this wider context and that it goes beyond any single member of the police. It is not that every officer is evil, but they do operate in a system which was designed to build and maintain white supremacy. Justice for the individual Black Americans killed by individual members of the police is necessary, but so is a long, hard look at - and action against - our understanding of societal order and how it must be upheld.
Exposing these structures has taken years of untold work and sacrifice on the part of Black communities, activists and historians. It is far past time that white Americans help rather than hinder this work.
~~
Further Reading:
Recommended listening:
~~
Please--save any money from awards you might give this post. The AskHistorians community asks you to donate it to a charity of your choice that fights for justice for people of color, in your country or around the world.
The Texas KKK routinely targeted police officers for recruitment as a way to insulate themselves from prosecution. Many were unmasked when they committed a mass shooting in downtown Austin leading to sweeping arrests at their clubhouse.
~~
Brown, Norman D. Hood, bonnet, and little brown jug : Texas politics, 1921-1928. Texas A & M University Press, c. 1984
Kudos for your willingness to combine the historiographies of policing and lynching. While it may be obvious, historians often compartmentalize, as when labor historians omit or skirt the historiography of forced labor -- enslaved or prison.
For those outside the field, this ability to think in plastic categories is more unusual than you may imagine.
I'm always amazed at how this sub constantly reminds us with its actions that it is by far the best channel on Reddit. You guys are champs, thank you for helping us learn from our mistakes. Love everything you do
Thank you a million times over for this post. Exactly what's needed in this moment.
Probably shamefully, this is the first I’m hearing about Anthony Crawford’s lynching. However, looking over the Wikipedia article, the story it seems to tell describes the opposite of indifference by the local police. It claims that the sheriff arrested Crawford “most likely for his own protection” and that the mob “captured and disarmed Sheriff Burts” to be able to abduct him from the prison. Would you say that article is a mischaracterization or is exaggerating to make the authorities look better? Because the story that’s being told in the entry doesn’t really support the case in the post that police were a tool to enable white supremacy in this situation (not that there aren’t myriad other examples to support that fact). Obviously, Wikipedia can be flawed and I can’t comment well on the legitimacy of its sources, so I’d appreciate a historian perspective.
That pattern exists because despite every act of police brutality, and even despite protests following individual acts, white America’s preference for an "orderly" society has been a higher priority.
Can expand a little more on the meaning of the phrase, '"orderly" society' and specifically what it might be in contrast to?
In honour of todays post, let me do my usual gig and offer some further posts as reading.
/u/sowser explains that enslavement in the U.S. was limited to black people. There were no enslaved white people.
/u/Georgy_K_Zhukov has a brilliant post on chain gangs and the re-enslavement of the freeman through the prison system.
Thank you for this submission. Though of course capturing even 100 years of history in a ~1000 word post is herculean, there were many detailed and nuanced points worth consideration.
Specifically, the structural relationship between geography and power. Chicago has a storied history of redlining, but even in places where the practice was not formally codified immense geographic stratification still occured; e.g., in Boston, my city, the city is divided from northwest to southeast by the Orange Line subway line. The great majority of black people live south of that line - with only one small exception, any black majority neighborhood is south of it. Literally, wrong side of the tracks. This was original research a few years ago, but you can also heat map the incidence of certain outcomes (incidence of fresh food stores; asbestos and lead related morbidities; etc) against that distribution and the results are alarming if not unexpected.
I feel wholly convinced that even if the Floyd protests are wildly successful beyond our hopes in combatting police brutality, that this only scratches the surface of the systemic disenfranchisement of black and brown populations.
I would find it very interesting to hear a historian's take on the self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, black students have lower educational attainment in part because the teachers predict they will be rowdy / uncurious / whatever, and give them less attention; then the racist points at PSAT scores or whatever and says, "see? They are less capable." The abuse and misinterpretation of statistical data to make causal relationships btwn melanin content and outcomes are despicable but frequent across a range of fields and especially with respect to the intrinsically heinous debate over IQ scores but also in crime statistics.
So I don't know if it is really a good idea to entertain these arguments - if it would enable a form of "JAQing off" for example - but invariably we will all be exposed to this poor logic that bears the standard of "scientific inquiry" when making its equally poor conclusions. And I would find it very valuable, interesting, and relevant to explore the structural preconditions that systemically guaranteed certain outcomes (poverty, education, health, so forth). This kind of holistic inquiry elucidates the inherent multivariate nature of causal relationships and requires an argument that transcends individual policy or individual outcome.
Moreover, the legacy of tests being weaponized as tools to disenfranchise black people has a gross and lengthy history, worthy of its own post.
Sorry to ramble. I just find that this community is both the most articulate and well-informed, but one of the most respected across reddit. I admire the stance the moderation team has taken and hope that they continue to shed light on this truly terrible history, so that we may learn from it and, of equal import, utilize those lessons in combatting the current situation.
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein was assigned as part of a class in college, as someone born and raised in the US it was frankly embarrassing how ignorant I was on the topic of systemic racism. I highly encourage anyone who wants to learn more on the blatant segregation of the 20th century and its effects in the contemporary to read this book. It's even on sale on Amazon right now.
Hi all!
I've seen a few people wondering how a post like this fits in with our site rules against soapboxing, politics, and discussing events with in the last 20 years.
Here is why we think it's important:
Thank you for this excellent summary.
Is this a place to ask questions or get further sources? If so....
I am from Hawaiʻi and part native Hawaiians. Watching these events unfold, but mostly thousands of miles away, in a country whose history we “inherited” through our own experience of systemic racist violence and illegal annexation, it is easy to have empathy with black protestors and the overall cause of eradicating the scourge of racism from American society. I stand completely with the work of this movement and don’t want to decenter their struggles in any way.
However, I can’t help but feel distant and remote from the way American history on this topic is often told, as my community and history weren’t even a part of that experience (other than very indirectly), and have a hard time understanding and contextualizing current situations in light of some obvious differences (for example the ruling class/majority in Hawaiʻi is not exclusively or even predominantly white, and black people are a tiny tiny minority who mostly do not have the same roots and history as black people on the US continent).
And of course it is obvious that anti blackness, colorism, and racism have deeply permeated the experience of native Hawaiians and other communities of color in Hawaiʻi including, of course, the overincarceration of native Hawaiians and the disproportionate poverty among islander communities from Hawaiʻi, Polynesia, and Micronesia today. So I can empathize as a Hawaiian, but I don’t know how to necessarily reconcile that with the understanding that antiblack racism is unique and pervasive on a completely different level than racism again native Hawaiians and other indigenous folks.
So, long story short, does anyone have recommendations of resources to learn more about antiblackness, racist police brutality, and the history of colonization specific to Hawaiʻi and the US-colonized pacific (e.g., Guam, American Samoa, the Philippines), I would be very very interested in learning more. It can be hard to sort through resources focused on the continental US to see what applies more specifically to Hawaiʻi, as we often get left out of conversations about the country’s history.
In tears. Thank you for this
Phenomenal post from the only sub I've thought of as consistently good. Thank you to the mod team for this, and if you don't mind I'll share this post (with link, for full attribution) with friends and followers.
I was wondering if someone could write up a similar post in regards to Canadian treatment of our indigenous?
I know the vast majority of us up here are sitting on our high horses looking down at "all the racism in the the US" while simultaneously ignoring what has gone on --and what continues to go on-- in our own backyard.
This really gets to the heart of it
White Americans, on average, want an orderly society that looks like a Western European country
Many POC want a more open and inclusive society
Think Miami or New Orleans versus Minneapolis. Or big cities versus cloistered suburbs
It's so engrained in the mindset of people that they don't even think about how this mindset drives not only the police but zoning laws, noise laws, redlining, marijuana laws, almost every facet of community life.
Can these truly be dismantled, or is the only real solution a full integration of many POC into this "orderly society" thru better economic opportunity. I don't know the answer and we haven't come close to getting it right.
Another important, less talked about system is debt. It kept people tied down during share cropping and today it’s used to lock people up Again because they can’t afford parole and probation fees.
I definitely appreciate the post, but had a quick question about your style choice. Why do you capitalize Black but not white? I've been told to capitalize neither or both.
I just want to recommend Carol Anderson, Chair of African American Studies at Emory University's videos. She is an amazing storyteller as well as an expert in both the history of individual events she discusses, as well as the broader historical forces.
I hope that's alright.
Is there any literature on the history of the police force? I think most readers assume the idea that the police have existed in approximately their current from since time began. I personally don't know the history of police forces, but I suspect much like the history of race relations there is a lot of pertinent information there that is missed.
This is excellent, would you mind if I shared some of your words on my social media accounts?
Thank you so much for this. As a Canadian white woman I’ve been doing my best to understand what’s happening in the US as much as I can and this helps to contextualize a bit.
We in the North are very much siblings to our American neighbours and though the focus of our cultural racism where I live in particular is usually on aboriginal peoples more than black people, all racism is important to address and your/their terrible struggles have made people hundreds or thousands of kilometres away look at their own attitudes and actions or lack thereof.
Thank you for your words helping us all to understand and to everyone standing up for humans of any skin tone.
The team behind this sub can be proud of itself. It's a sad but important read and once again I feel powerless to do anything about it.
This is the best subreddit. Thank you for using your platform purposefully.
Thank you, so much, mod team. This is a perfect example of how history and historians add tremendous value to the present and future—and in this case, for one of the most important issues we've faced as a country. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
can I translate that and share with my contacts back in my country?
That pattern exists because despite every act of police brutality, and even despite protests following individual acts, white America’s preference for an "orderly" society has been a higher priority.
White Americans value their own comfort over the lives and rights of nonwhite people.
Many of us whites know someone who will say something along the lines of "both sides are bad" or mention that police violence is somehow in response to hostility from protesters. They'll say something along the lines of "two wrongs don't make a right," or argue that destruction of property is somehow also a serious concern to them.
There are all tactics to hide and disguise the fact that they would rather see minorities suffer for the sake of white comfort than be mildly inconvenienced by it. They would rather pretend brutality is justified than accept that they are complacent, that their refusal to speak up is in part why inequality and police brutality happen.
If you know someone who says something like that, make an effort to engage them. Let them know that by asking protesters to back down, by condemning damage to property more than damage to people, and by refusing to fight for change that they are part of the problem. Oppressors will not be overcome with humanity and cease their oppression, equality and humanity must be fought for or lost entirely.
Edit: Since I want to respond to those concerned with my decision to present my argument as I did, I'd like to leave this quote. It comes from Elizabeth Rice discussing how content creators could and should engage with the protests, but their words, I believe, are better than mine in this case.
Do NOT tone police those who are marginalized.
I cannot put into words how frustrating it is to see creators criticize black people and other marginalized groups for how they choose to go about advocating for their rights. Watch out for people saying things like "violence is never the answer," "there are better ways to protest," and who use a white-washed version of MLK in order to criticize protesters. These things may sound perfectly reasonable in the abstract, where no context exists, but the reality is that language of positivity and peace has been an active tool of oppression. Not to mention the fact that those sentiments pretend the founding and and development of the United States was a tea party. Black people are literally damned no matter HOW they've protested over the years. If you're a content creator and these are some things you want to say, don't, ESPECIALLY if you don't haven't said a peep about police brutality.
I’m late to the party, but I also recommend the book “In the Matter of Color” by Judge Higginbotham. He goes into the racial laws and customs of the 13 colonies, how (Judge) Lords Mansfield set a precedent in UK law decrying slavery, and how Lord Mansfield’s ruling was an under appreciated reason as to why the 13 colonies broke away from Britain.
Is it at all fair to say that police brutality has progressed from not just being “white on black” but to now also be a “blue on everyone” situation? I ask because of this recent article from theThe AJC in which 5 of the 6 charged officers were black.
Thank you for this absolutely fantastic post!
One thing I notice a lot that really bothers me whenever any sort of tragedy like George Floyd's murder occurs is the immediate opposition to calling for any sort of political or social change. I have noticed this pattern in the case of both school shootings and the deaths of black people at the hands of police, people will justifiably call for reform of some kind, but then immediately be shot down with "now is not the time, a tragedy has just occurred, and all you're doing is politicizing it!" as if police brutality against black people isn't already political. I believe one reason why this is such a common response to such calls of reform are due to a fear of major societal change, after all, it is not usually people who are more susceptible to police brutality who are hesitant to reform or abolish police in fear of having their actions come off as being too "politically motivated", but rather, such reactions usually come from people who do not have to worry about being treated unjustly by law enforcement due to the colour of their skin (I am speaking as a white person, I'm not going to pretend I understand one ounce of what black people have to go through every day, but to resist calls to changing how police treat black people, is, in my opinion, ignorant at best, and incredibly selfish at worst).
It almost seems there is an illusion that there is no right time to protest societal injustices, I hope that the murder of George Floyd will break such an illusion, and that these protests will not become another passing trend that will be forgotten in a few months. While I don't believe there needs to be a complete revolution, I do believe that the protests and riots, though violent at times, are necessary at this point to produce change.
Once again, I very much appreciate this post, AskHistorians never ceases to amaze me in how consistently great it is!
How, in a historical context, do you separate and distinguish police brutality levied by class and race?
That is, in Crawford's case it was obviously about his race because he was moderately well off, but how do we know how much the police brutality in, say, the 1960s was about class and how much was about race?
That was beautifully written. Thank you all for spending the time and energy to put this together.
This is beautifully written provides essential context for what's happening in America. Thank you so much for bringing this level of clarity to such a complex issue. Hopefully reading this will help more people realize why this struggle is so essential to improving the character of the U.S. and helping it to fulfill its promise.
Truly wonderful. Thank you so much, mod team
I hope this is our turning point
One very interesting point that I didn't know about is that you show that police violence occured against black no matter the social strata (with the lynching of Crawford for instance). In my mind, it was more correlated to the police targeting poorer, most vulnerable people, so that disproves it.
One point I would like to know more about is (and I apologise if this is inapropriate for this thread): was their a similar (although lower level) systemic violence by US police force towards other minorities (beyond the natives, that one is kind of known worldwide) or white poorer strata?
I'd love to see a post on non-violent stuff that's happened. The FHA bs that happened when it was first created wasn't just, "oh no you don't have money" there were provisions placed in that literally didnt allow black people to obtain loans or housing in white neighborhoods. before it was even an issue of neighbors knowing a black family was trying to move in.
Just wanted to take the chance to comment, in case this post is locked further, to say I'm amazed by this community and its response, as well as the solidarity shown by the mods.
This really hits different with how it’s written. It’s really corny but this sub is one of my favorites and I always feel like I’m at home when I’m here. Such a great community that’s well run because of a great mod team. Thanks y’all and to everyone on here too.
Can you please go into more detail? I really really want to know more this is a fantastic post
What a great post! I never really thought about the history of the American police force forming under such a racially charged construct, and it definitely provides a powerful perspective to the modern day
Have other nations created their police force under similar ideas?
Was the creation of the US police force a natural step in White Supremacy? That is: have nations with greater beliefs/backgrounds in equality pushed for a police force as much?
I got chills reading this entire thing, but this to me, was what was the most resonant
But it’s not enough to say, “here are a bunch of examples of police officers brutalizing Black people.” The ability of individual officers to assault and kill Black Americans year after year, decade after decade, murder after murder, stems from the unwillingness of the white majority to step beyond protesting individual cases or do to more than stroke our chins and say, “Yes, I see a pattern.”
I love this subreddit so much man. Thank you so much for posting all of this
Cheers to this sub’s mod team for their efforts.
Incredible work. Well said.
To add to the reading list, I highly recommend this article written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and published in the atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
It does a profound job of explaining a major driving force of systemic racism in American societies.
I'm in awe that you've managed to condense so much into such a short post. This is really impressive. Thank you to all of the talented folks who wrote this post, and thank you for continuing to moderate this community with such integrity.
there should also be mention of the courts and elected officials that have had their hand in condoning, exonerating, normalizing and even stoking such acts of brutal savagery against the black man. when there was little to no repercussions to those who commit such heinous crimes against a specific subset of mankind, it cemented police immunity, it perpetuated that their actions were justified and correct.
what good is video evidence if at the trial 10 white male jurors vote to exonerate and 2 black female jurors vote to convict resulting in a hung jury, that is then declared a mistrial and case dismissed? the "bad" cop goes back to work plus missed pay after a year's sabbatical
I'm very proud to be a member of this community and support its inclusion of all who wish to participate peacefully and without hate. I'd like to share another lesser known story about police violence, riots, and race.
Columbus GA, March of 1971: A 17 year old black man is in a stolen car being pursued by police. The car stops and the young man runs, so the officer shoots. The young man is wounded from the gunshot; the gunshot entry hole was in the young man's back.
As a result, Columbus, which had elected a Republican mayor that was part of a biracial platform/coalition in the previous cycle ('68) and had appointed black members to prominant positions in the preceding year, saw three of every four of its black police officers (39 of 52 officers which was less than 10% of the total force in Columbus) join the Afro-American Police League (AAPL hereafter). They immediately spoke out about the discrimination, racial targeting, and racism exhibited in the shooting and in general by police.
In May an officer refused to testify in court against a black man that was on trial, so he was suspended. Seven other officers, all black, met at police HQ to demonstrate at which point they tore the American flags off their police uniforms. The seven were then fired for conduct unbecoming an officer (the original man was reinstated after review/appeal).
Hosea Williams, a Georgian, famed civil rights activist, close friend of MLK, Jr, and (at that time) national executive and regional V.P. of the Atlanta based Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), went to Columbus and organized a march. On Saturday June 19 what started as a relatively peaceful march took place. A lawsuit had also been filed on behalf of 39 black members of the community (including 27 police officers) demanding an end to racial discrimination in community policing as well as in the hiring, discipline, and promotion of officers in the police department.
June 20: In the late night and early morning hours of the 19th/20th, destruction begins. Fed up with loss after loss ^footnote they finally let the aggression out and fires soon started throughout town, mainly in the black neighborhoods. This continued over the weekend.
Around midnight the night of June 20/21, a market was robbed for about 250$ and a description put out for two black men as the suspects. About 2:30A officers spotted two black men in a car and initiated a stop at which point the car took off and reportedly reached speeds of 100 mph+ in the chase. When the vehicle was finally stopped, a 20 year old black man named Willie Osbourne began to run. A white detective that had joined the pursuit allegedly saw "something shiny" and fired, stricking and killing Osbourne. The gunshot entry hole was in the young man's back. The det. was suspended pending investigation by the department. The SCLC called it "cold blooded murder" and demanded state and federal investigations. The AAPL quickly showed up at police HQ to protest where several people - including some of the fired officers - were then arrested.
The city went, for lack of a more official term, bat-shit crazy. Despite pleas from both the SCLC and the AAPL the city was in chaos. It didn't help that mayor Allen and Columbus' US Congressman, Jack Brinkley, publicly blamed the violence on the arrival of ["Hosea Williams, chief racist of them all".] (http://crdl.usg.edu/cgi/crdl?format=_video;query=id:ugabma_wsbn_58178). Future president/then Governor Jimmy Carter [even spoke out] (http://crdl.usg.edu/cgi/crdl?format=_video;query=id:ugabma_wsbn_58179), being more PC in his speech but also blaming Williams for publicity seeking at the expense of Columbus' black communities and ultimately causing the destruction (clips of an interview with Brinkley and press conference with Carter, both June 21, 1971, both courtesy of WSB-TV and The Civil Rights Digital Library). Notice what Carter says about the black community having legitimate grievances and the white community wanting to prevent disruption, then think about the OP and how it speaks to the original desire to prevent disruption in white communities!
Over the next month alcohol, firearm, and ammunination sales would be prohibited in Columbus. George Wallace would even prohibit sales in Pheonix City, AL as well. The GA State Police were sent and a curfew ordered. Peace was largely regained. Then on July 21st, as a group of black protesters were ending their march, they were charged by officers with batons "swinging wildly" (according to the NYT). Six people were reported injured and over twice that were arrested. The city again delved into violence and new fire bombings prompting a non-curfew curfew, a "suggestion" by mayor JR Allen to not be outside after 10PM. If you were, he warned, he had authorized the police to consider that alone suspicious activity and the officers may "use their discretion" at how to proceed. Eventually the situation calmed and life returned to a state of normal. Little gains were accomplished in ousting racism from Columbus. Just like Augusta, Savannah, Macon, Albany, and Atlanta had already seen, it was another Georgian town expressing frustration over the past hundred years of freeman oppression* rooted deeply within society and within those agents authorized with use of force to prevent disruptions to society.
And it still happens. Just like that. Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the shooting of Willie Osbourne. And. It's. Still. Happening.
Footnote: Schools, for instance, had recently been integrated in Muskogee County (Columbus) yet 12 remained all black and even more all white. Less than 5% of white students attended predominately black schools. Worse, any black teacher with experience and a degree from a notable northern school (timeout - this is a whole 'nother thing where GA would pay the difference in out-of-state tuition to send blacks to northern schools and keep them out of places like UGA - time in) was pulled and sent to "white" school for diversity. The new white teachers without degrees or with only training certs would be sent to replace the removed teachers, worsening the education level of the integrated "black" schools.
Thank you for this neat summary and well done to this sub for taking even a small stand.
This is amazing. Thank you.
Thank you so much for this Thread
Reddit is a hotbed for racism that is not being attacked. The fact TD still exist just shows where the priorities are.
Thank you so much for this. This is the kind of work that led me to my college's history department
Reading Grant by Ron Chernow and he describes a convention that blacks were having to try to get voting rights. (Edit New Orleans massacre, 1866)The police (mostly CSA veterans) rolled in and massacred 44 defenseless men, and injuring ~150. Shooting kneeling men, then stabbing them. Disgusting. Oh, and Spoiler, Johnson was a racist of the first order
From the creation of the police to effectively hide or get rid of “undesirables” to “protect and serve” (I think in the 1950’s?) is quite a significant paradigm shift. How did this change happen? How did the police morph from oligarchic protection force to “public servants”?
Incredible post. Thank you so much to all mods of this amazing subreddit
Hear, hear. That Scene on Radio podcast series is spectacular. I'd also like to suggest BackStory, which has many good episodes on similar subjects.
Here's one from a few years ago about the troubled history of the police: https://www.backstoryradio.org/shows/serve-protect-2016/
Thank you. This is very enlightening.
Really good write-up; I appreciate everything this subreddit is doing and we're happy to stand alongside you in solidarity on this one.
My question: for anyone who's read it, what are your thoughts on At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America? I've been considering getting it, but I wanted to check how it is as a source just to be absolutely sure.
I’ve yet to have a comment survive the moderation bot here but we’ll see how it goes.
Isn’t the simplest solution to start at the city council? Whether you are white or black you can go to city council meetings and affect policy for your police department.
I’m curious how much of this issue is a nationwide coordinated effort in 2020 vs individual police departments lagging behind in policy.
I'm wondering what I can do with a mere BA in History with regards to local history for communities of color? Maybe contact local organizations that support//archive//preserve POC history and offer volunteer services? I'm still way too poor to consider finishing with a Masters Degree qualifying me to teach, so any suggestions to productively combine my passion with activism would be appreciated.
This was incredible. The first post that has ever made me cry. Thank you for writing this.
This is only tangentially related, but I have wondered if the current degradation of American politics and overall stability since the victory of capitalism over communism with the fall of the USSR is comparable to the slow degredation and fall of the Roman Republic. Would
Would asking such a question be possible? (since while parts of what I ask start in the 90's more recent examples fall inside the 20 year rule of this sub)
I know this might get deleted for being low effort, (I’d almost be disappointed if it didn’t get deleted) but I have to say that I have always loved the mods here for your dedication and consistency. And now this! You guys are so cool. Keep fighting for the truth. I love you guys
Thank you ✊
An excellent perspective.
With permission, I'd like to share this on some of my social media with proper sourcing, citation, and credit. Would that be alright?
absolutely amazing. I'm so glad y'all put this out here. succinct yet well sourced and emotional.
An excellent post--one that reflects the impenetrable quality of this subreddit. In a world where facts and history are often misconstrued, it remains ever so important for subreddits like these to stand firm on the principles of historical objectivity and documentation. We protect the truth by documenting it and studying it. Those who do not study history are certainly destined to repeat it. Well done r/askhistorians!
Thank you so much for this. Is there a single, extraordinary book you recommend in the history of policing. Not just in the US, but since the agricultural revolution?
Can anyone recommend free audiobooks on the subject?
Thanks for writing this post, it's very helpful in understanding the underlying issues that the current protests are about. As a European, I didn't know much of America's police force's history.
Where I live, I've lately heard a lot of people say that now is also the time to, as Europeans, look at ourselves and how racism affects our own countries, especially as we like to pat ourselves on the back about how we're doing better than the US in this regard. To that end, do you know more about the history of Europe's police forces and if they have similar origins as to what you've explained about America? Specifically asking about Western Europe.
Excellent work. I especially like the encouragement to give to charity as opposed to a reddit award. Much obliged.
As well as historical precedences, could gun laws be one of the main root causes? An outsider's (eastern european) perspective: A society where even random grandmas can carry guns anytime, can justify a police force being overly prepared, overly cautious, overly brutal just due to the fact that they are preparing for-, assuming the worst resistance anytime, in any situation. Systemic, historical racism is visible for me as well, but I think it will never be better unless the society is free from guns.
Thank you historians.
Love you guys! Can't imagine how frustrating it is for literal Nazi's to come in with history revisionism constantly with no easy way to combat them without significant time investment. First way to get people on-board with fixing these issues is getting them to understand why they are there.
This is incredible. Thank you for taking the time to put it together.
Best response from best sub.
Wonderful post.
Let's all work together to change our country for the better.
You reference an article or book (or perhaps something else) from Jamil Smith in 2015. Do you have a link, or at least a little more info to help me find that? Thanks.
See if twitter wants to read anything above 240 characters. Worth a try sharing.
Is there somewhere where this is in a format that is more easily shareable on other platforms like Facebook?
Nice job exposing the truth that the US police force has always been a bastion of white supremacy
Does the AskHistorians team have any suggestions for organizations or charities to donate to?
Excellent write-up
This is such a heart wrenching post but something we all need to read so we know what we should be learning from our past.
Excellent post, I’ve been wondering about the history of police in this country myself. Passing it on to others
Can I share to facebook?
Great Read , Thank you , I will share this to my people
Thank you for this. I really hope we get more easy to consume media that covers black history across the world. Any podcasts anyone recommends whether it covers history or the current George Floyd Protests?
Thank you for using your voice. This issue is not just a black people issue. It’s fundamentally a threat to the foundation of our country and constitution. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
I look up Private Thomas Foster that was mentioned, and wow.
On March 22, 1942, a group of African-American soldiers from Company D of the Ninety-second Engineers stationed at Camp Joseph T. Robinson went to Little Rock’s African-American business and recreational district at Gaines and West 9th Street in search of off-post entertainment. One black soldier, Private Albert Glover, was arrested by white military police officers for public drunkenness.
Little Rock police officers Abner J. Hay and George Henson joined the officers, who then proceeded to beat Glover. While Glover was being put in a truck by military policemen to return him to Camp Robinson, Sergeant Foster confronted the military police, whom he outranked, and asked why they had allowed civilian police to assault Glover and why they had been so rough with him. The military police attempted to arrest Foster, but a scuffle and chase ensued. When Foster was backed into an alcove in front of a black Presbyterian church, city police officer Hay—instead of arresting Foster—attacked him, and city officers beat Foster with a nightstick when it looked like Foster might best Hay in the fight.
When Foster let go of Hay, Hay shot him three times in the abdomen and once in the right arm, as white military police looked on and brandished guns to hold back the growing interracial crowd. Reportedly, after Hay shot Foster, he reloaded his revolver and then lit and smoked a pipe.
stems from the unwillingness of the white majority to step beyond protesting
Is it unwillingness, or an inability to understand what can be done?
What can be done?
Beautifully and thoughtfully written. Thank you for using this platform for something so importantly
More like this please
Is there some estimate of the number of African Americans murdered through lynching? Perhaps to constrain things, just in the 20th century?
Does anyone have a reccomendation for reading on racism and black history in England?
Just saw r/weddingplanning post their support. So proud!
Everybody who thinks that the protests right now are unnecessary or excessive needs to read this
Really great write-up. Thank you for doing this.
Thank you!
What’s the source on the 1920s women study? I could be blind
Out of curiosity, what fields of history expertise is in the mod team?
you guys are class acts
Thank you so much for this incredible post, this really is the best subreddit!
thank you for using your platform to speak up!!!!
Any chance this could be shared to IG post/story? Would make sure to credit!
Great work, thank you.
Ty
In addition, we would like to express solidarity with other subreddits which have chosen to similarly go dark or otherwise temporarily shut down, including r/nfl, r/nba, r/hiphopheads, r/popheads, r/indieheads, r/GoodOmens, r/military, r/Screenwriting, r/XFL, r/DankMemes, r/Music, r/EDM, r/punk, r/DebateAnAtheist, r/polytheism, r/Unexpected, r/AskReddit, r/UNC, r/wallstreetbets, r/history, /r/watchpeoplesurvive, /r/witchesvspatriarchy, /r/tax, /r/Screenwriting, /r/chefit, /r/Toyota, /r/malefashionadvice, r/DIY, r/philosophy, r/askphilosophy, r/boardgames, r/ToiletPaperUSA, r/drums, r/findaleague, r/SquaredCircle, r/awwducational, r/askfoodhistorians, r/Breakpoint, /r/agegap, r/agegaprelationship, r/whatintarnation, r/DnDBehindtheScreen, r/whowouldwin, r/weddingplanning, r/49ers, r/warriors, r/Dachschaden, r/TrueCrime, r/Unexpected, /r/brasil, r/AskWomen, /r/AskMen, r/gorillarecipes, /r/fosterit, r/Adoption, r/math, r/darkestdungeon, r/jugger, /r/The_Mueller, r/feminisms, r/Saferbot, r/Florida, r/Miami, r/FiftyFifty, r/Hijabis, r/Beyoncé, r/SocialistRA, r/thisismylifemeow, /r/AskEconomics, /r/nicebirbs, /r/flybys, /r/birbsmirrin, r/birbmirrin, /r/foldingbicycle, /r/spiraldex, /r/apocalyptica_band, /r/hunterandfriends, /r/huntermotorcycles, /r/justnoneighbor, /r/justnoneighbour, r/insanepeoplequora, r/LandscapeArchitecture , r/BadHistory, r/tall, r/ChelseaFC, r/DebateAVegan, r/VeganDE, r/badmathematics, /r/LearnJapanese, and /r/MLS.
Also a shout-out to all the community and city subreddits who have expressed solidarity but can't reasonably shut down at the moment in order to coordinate things in their community such as /r/saltlakemetro, r/washingtondc, r/Minneapolis, r/offmychest, r/racism, r/2020PoliceBrutality, r/suboxone and /r/blacklivesmatter.
Please modmail us if your subreddit ought to be included in this list.
Very solid write up, good job OP.
Interesting format. Are there any plans to use it for other events?
post columbian america tho , not pre columbian Amwerica which was awesome. they even used the Iriqious confederacy for thier consitution but left out the everyone is equal bits
An informative post carefully avoiding any politics - as it should in these heated times.
Bravo!