As I type this, the President of the United States Donald J. Trump has attacked Rep. Elijah Cummings.  It was a racist attack.  This attack comes on the heels of countless attacks on four women of color who are also representatives, including a false claim that one of the women was married to her brother.  One of his opening attacks was telling the women to go back to their countries – all four are American citizens, three were born in American, and the one who is naturalized has been a citizen longer than the First Lady and her Be Best campaign.  Then there was the time he said Congresswoman Wilson was a stripper.  Trump also believes that Obama is not an American and that the Obama family book deals should be investigated.

 

                People are wary to say the following – Trump is a racist - because of reasons.  I’m not entirely sure what those reasons are.  I know that some of them have to do with press rules, but considering that the above is only a fraction of what the Trump presidency has done in terms of attacking people of color, including the targeting of reporter April Ryan, and considering Trump’s record in NYC,  it should be a matter of record that Trump is in fact a racist.

 

                Tie that to the Federal Government going back to executions (under a President who wanted the Central Park Five executed after their innocence was acknowledged/proven), and we are entering an even scary time than most people (dare I say most white people) are aware.

 

                Dray’s history of lynching in America makes it abundantly clear that same circumstances that existed to allow lynching exist today.  In spades.   It wouldn’t be too hard to draw a connection between the violence that has been threatened towards AOC and Omar, and lynching’s.

 

                It is not surprising that Trump targets people of color who call him out on his behavior or are critical of his policies.  (And what is the difference between MAGA and the change that Omar and the squad say is needed?  Outside of how the policies are different, both are saying the country needs to be improved).  It is the same reason why lynching was done – it is a way to keep the power in the relationship, to enforce a racist hierarchy.

 

                But you know this. 

 

                In his book, Dray details not only famous and lesser known cases of lynching (including one at a university) but also the whys for the violence (he moves beyond the accurate if board racism) as well as those who fought against it (and sometimes those people will surprise you), he also details the society that allowed it.  The comments in the news, by people and such.  And many of those comments are pretty much the language that Trump and his supporters are using.

 

                That is one reason why you should read this book.

 

                You should also read this book because this part of American history is something that we should not ignore or be ignorant about.  In part, this is so we can avoid it, but also so we can understand and acknowledge the problems in the relationship between the justice system and minority communities: many of the lynching’s were done with approval or little intervention from the justice system, and we still see that impact today .In part, so that we can confront the ugly history the same way that countries such as Germany have confronted theirs.

 

                That is another reason to read this book.

 

                Dray’s writing is engaging.  He doesn’t shy away from the graphic unpleasant details, but he does not use load language to try to heighten the reader’s emotional responses. The cases that he focuses on are either famous enough to warrant mention, or because the lack of or response to the attacks is important historically.  While the book does have photos, and some of those are disturbing to look at (as they should be), the book is primary description, which as always makes the horrific even more so.  (If you are worried about being triggered, the photos are in the photo section (just over mid-way in.  The first photo in that section is not bad.  So, if you need to skip the photos, you can).

 

                The book is packed with information and you will discover other books to read in the narrative.  The one strange thing was that he starts with W. E. B. DuBois, and I was hoping for Ida B. Wells.  But I guess more people know DuBois as opposed to Wells.  Though, hopefully this book helps to correct that.

               

James H. Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2013). Pg. 202. Paperback $24.00.

 

I picked up this book at the recommendation of a friend. I’m glad it was recommended, because when I read this book, I discovered how the cross is still delivering a powerful message even in 21^st century America. Between the Civil War and the 1940s, there were about 5,000 lynchings in America. This book explores how the African-American community was able to take this despicable act, and see in it the cross of Jesus Christ.

 

Cone’s message, in many ways, is a very simple one. He argues that the lynching tree served the same function that the cross served for the Romans in the first century: a brutal and humiliating warning for people to keep in their place. He notes that just as crucifixions were often driven by mob mentality (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19), so too were lynchings. However, he also argues that just as Jesus was able to take the cross, an instrument of death, and change it into a symbol of life, so too did the African-American community take the lynching tree, a humiliating and tragic part of America’s story, and change it into a sign of hope.

 

Through the various chapters, Cone explores the meaning of the cross in African-American churches, as well as how that imagery even influenced blues music. Both church and music allowed African-Americans to believe that, in the end, God could and would redeem their suffering.

 

In chapter two, he explores the theology of Reinhold Niebuhr. Because I’m an Orthodox Christian, I was unfamiliar with this theologian. Cone goes to great lengths to show how Niebuhr was aware of lynchings, but never connected lynchings with his theology of the cross. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was fair to argue against someone based on an absence of evidence, as Cone was doing here, but, as I’m unfamiliar with Niebuhr, I’ll assume Cone knows what he’s talking about. What I did take away, however, was that Cone really wanted to show that there’s an obvious connection between the lynching tree and the cross, yet, despite this obviousness, white theologians failed to make the connection.

 

In the next chapter, largely about Martin Luther King, Jr., Cone shows how there was a clear difference between white theology, represented by Niebuhr, and black theology. He shows that sermons and hymns from the American-American community were full of images of the cross; images that take suffering and transform it into a means of salvation. He further explores this idea in the next two chapters, which look specifically at popular literature, and women in the African-American community.

 

Cone very brilliantly concludes that the lynching tree frees the cross from the false pieties of well-meaning Christians, and when we are able to see the cross as a first century lynching, then we are able to encounter Christ in our own time and place.

 

The reason I didn’t give it the full number of stars was because of the writing style. Cone often goes on tangents, which interrupt the train of thought. He uses a lot of quotes from sermons, letters, hymns, poems, etc., yet sometimes they are awkwardly placed. He also, at times, becomes repetitive, rehashing an argument he’s already made in a previous chapter. This leaves one wishing Cone had more to add to his argument. Perhaps a better way to have written this book would have been as a source book. He could have written a short introduction, and then made the rest of the chapter primary sources that backed up his argument. Despite these flaws, this book is still has a powerful message for America today, and it’s worth reading.

“Violent crimes render us myopic. In the immediate aftermath of a murder it can be impossible to see things clearly; emotions run high and the desire for vengeance often trumps reason. When the crime has racial overtones, justice is rarely colour-blind, and for cases that capture the media spotlight, the wave of punditry and prognostication that inevitably follows sweeps away all hope of ever separating fact from fiction … One of the telltale symptoms of our crime-induced myopia is wrongful conviction.”

Those sentences begin the preface of this book and if the reader were unfamiliar with the subject matter one could assume the book was about one of any number of crimes in the headlines of today’s newspapers. But this particular murder took place on January 27th, 1896 when Annie Kempton was the victim of an attempted rape. She was then beaten and finally murdered. Her assailant then sat in the room with the dead or dying Annie and calmly consumed a jar of homemade jam before disappearing into the night. Annie was 14 years old, and because of a little white lie she told, was alone when someone broke into her home. She died defending her virtue.

“Her cause of death was painfully obvious. A short cut of stove wood rested on the rug, painted with her blood. Its dimensions perfectly mirrored those of the jagged wounds across her face, but the log was not what killed her. Three deep gashes across her throat were the fatal injuries, stigmata of her killer’s uncontrollable rage. Two silver case knives lay near her head. Lest anyone doubt their significance, there were coated in blood. One however, did not look sharp enough to cut butter. The far more formidable blade of a well-honed butcher’s knife lay in wait on the only standing table in the room, yet it bore no trace of her blood. It was a curious anomaly, one that escaped all notice.
Like a shadow box, her blood had captured the outline of her killer. Bloody handprints were plastered on the cutlery and the window ledge. Bloody footprints faded in the snow, flagging his escape route through the back door. The assault had been quick but he had not been careful. He made no effort to mask his crime or destroy the telltale traces of it. There was little question her assailant had left soaked in her blood, a marked man.”

Annie’s neighbour, Peter Wheeler, had the unfortunate circumstance of being the last person to see Annie alive the evening before and then, the next morning, being the one to find her lifeless body.

So begins the perfect storm – Peter Wheeler’s swarthy complexion and unknown origins; an inexperienced Dr. Lewis Johnstone Lovett heading the kangaroo court of an inquest; the daily newspapers determined to make their pennies in sales and, the citizens of the small town of Bear River, Nova Scotia desperate to apprehend a killer in their midst.

“Canada’s newspaper had learned well the lessons of Jack the Ripper. Murder sells, to be sure, but an unsolved murder soon leaves a populace uneasy. Morbid fascination (and sales) quickly waned of all that was on offer was speculation and uncertainty.”

Enter Detective Nicholas Power, the self-professed “super cop” of the Maritimes. There was not a case he couldn’t solve or a criminal he couldn’t apprehend with his unique powers of deductive reasoning, rivaled only by those of the legendary Sherlock Holmes. Before he even stepped foot inside the crime scene Detective Power had his sights set on Peter Wheeler.

The author writes, “As for Detective Power, the media’s response fit perfectly into his scheme of things. Once Wheeler was in custody, there was no need to look for alternative suspects. With blinders firmly in place, the crack gumshoe now set about proving Wheeler’s guilt, a decidedly easier task than actually solving Annie’s murder.”

Ms. Komar brings her over twenty years of experience as a forensic anthropologist to the telling of the arrest, trial and subsequent hanging of Peter Wheeler. Her thorough research certainly leaves no stone unturned. She looks at this case from all angles and in some cases even justifies the errors as “a product of the times”. Ms Komar astutely points out that obviously forensic science was, if not unheard of, certainly in it’s infancy. However, fingerprint analysis was becoming a common practice, yet even that obvious manner of conviction or exoneration was swept under the table (because it did not fit Detective Power’s agenda). She quotes from the several local newspapers of the time, but only in the context of how they served to influence public opinion about an obviously innocent man. If I had to pick one flaw in this book it would be the amount of words given to how self-serving and yet influential the newspapers were, not only for the duration of Peter Wheelers’s case but, during that period of history in general. My personal opinion about that aside, this is not only a well-researched book but also a very well written book. Though the subject matters of true crime and wrongful convictions have caught my interest lately, I am apprehensive to pick up certain books because they often read like textbooks. Definitely not so in the case of Ms. Komar’s writing. She gives the facts in a smooth flowing and very readable narrative complete with illustrations, historical documentation and photographs.

Ms. Komar clearly brings the relevance of looking at history into the present. I definitely agree with her when she states:
“The true problem remains one of focus. Because the legal system demands it, appellate lawyers stare myopically at trial transcripts, hoping to find an impeachable error but they are missing the real reasons their client was wrongfully accused, for such social factors dwell outside the courthouse: racism, media manipulations, the force field that is celebrity, a community’s need for justice, and police officers with personal agendas” as in the case of Nicholas Power, “who cared more for preserving his aura of infallibility than in the pursuit of true justice.”

I can think of more than one case in the news recently where that last statement is more than exemplified. Sadly, with regards of wrongful convictions, the more things change … the more they stay the same.

Hello cherished followers,

 

Unfortunately, in the past month I've been bombarded with health issues to attend to that have and are sucking up all my energy and motivation. But, never fear, I will be back in the saddle soon!

***Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

 

I believe I have six chapters left in the audio. Peeta is really getting it bad in this book.

 

***Forever by Karen Ann Hopkins

 

I've picked this back up and am enjoying it. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood and can have a low tolerance for drawn out plots.

 

***The Lynching of Louie Sam by Elizabeth Steward

 

My anger and sad disposition just couldn't take much more of this book. After I toughen up a bit I will pick it back up.