The illegal, unfair and disproportionate imprisonment of African American youth is the focus of an annual coastal Georgia festival honoring the victories of black freedom fighter and state lawmaker Tunis G. Campbell
Rev. Campbell himself was unjustly imprisoned in Georgia and expelled from his Georgia Senate seat after white senators decided blacks could not hold public office in the Peach State
"Exodus From Pity to Power"
The 4th Annual Tunis G. Campbell Birthday Festival on March 30th – April 2nd, 2012 in Brunswick, GA
(Brunswick, Georgia) - The epidemic of “mass incarceration” of African-American youth is the focus of an annual coastal Georgia festival honoring the birthday and life of 19th century civil rights hero Tunis G. Campbell – a black Georgia state senator, education advocate and freedom fighter who himself was “imprisoned in a Georgia labor camp” and earlier was expelled from public office along with other black legislators after white state senators ruled that blacks could not hold political office.The main purpose of the three-days of events is "mass incarceration, education and labor," said civil rights and political activist Rev. Zack L. Lyde, pastor at the St. John's Missionary Baptist Church in Brunswick, Georgia.
Among the dignitaries attending the event will be Queen Quet Marquetta Goodwine, the Chieftess, Spokesperson, and Head-of-State for the Gullah/Geechee Nation.
A 2006 federal act preserves the sites, sounds and tastes of the 400-year history of the Gullah/Geechee Culture that has been slowly vanishing along the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
“Gullah/Geechee is the statement that defines our particular culture and history of African people on the coast from Jacksonville, Florida to Jacksonville, North Carolina," said Rev. Lyde. "Gullah/Geechee is the only African culture that has been officially recognized as distinct in country."
Queen Quet will "open up the service and deliver the sermon” at the 10 a.m. worship service on Sunday, April 1, 2012 inside the Baptist Worship Center in Crescent, Georgia, said Rev. Lyde, a Gullah/Geechee pastor.
The church is located on the site of 1,000 acre purchase initiated by Tunis Campbell.
Organizers will encourage parents to be involved in the issues and lives of black youth through sponsor organizations like Brunswick Youth Works, Inc. (affiliated with Jacksonville Youth Works).
"We want to influence young folks and their parents to be a part of that organization’s great work and rescuing our youth from serious problems both personal and criminal” like gangs, drugs and violence, Rev. Lyde said.
More black men are in the grip of the criminal-justice system today than were in slavery.
More than half of all black men without a high-school diploma go to prison during their lives.
– 2012 Mass Incarceration by The New Yorker magazine
The 2012 commemoration of Tunis G. Campbell (1812-1891) will focus “on the problem of mass incarceration of our youth” and the theme is “Exodus From Pity to Power.”
“Many youth are being pipelined into prison,” states an invitation distributed by Olivia Butler, festival chairperson.
“The daily streamlining of youth into the legal system, and too often on erroneous charges continues to increase,” Olivia Butler stated.
“One example of mass incarceration” involves a 13-year-old Glynn County girl “who was tried, convicted, sentenced to a 5-year prison term after being accused of having a cell phone at school at an after-school program,” Butler said.
The girl served 2 years and 2 months yet her “recent re-entry back into that same school system is being challenged,” Butler said.
The girl's mother believes her daughter was treated unjustly by a school and court system that doesn't care about the individual – especially if the incident involves an African American or other minority.
"She is my daughter and that is why I am so passionate about this," said Estella Wright, who is a veteran at fighting injustice.
Supporters believe the girl was unfairly arrested by school cop called a school resource officer or SRO.
“It incensed the community and we fought to get the child out," said Rev. Lyde. “She was in a juvenile detention facility – we call it a prison.”
“Schools are a pipeline to prison – they are not designed for intellectual development – they are designed for intellectual retardation,” said Rev. Zack Lyde.
"We are going to show we know how to educate our children and that’s what we are going to do first - focus on the children and being locked up,” he said. “This celebration gives us an opportunity to show that black folks are going to get back involved in their youth.”
“We are not going to have these games that our children end up in prison,” Rev. Lyde said. “We are going to be involved in education like we should.”
"The theme 'Exodus From Pity to Power' is for the organization for the mother who doesn't know how to fight and the father who doesn’t know he has the right to fight," Wright said.
Organizers hope the annual event highlighting the injustices faced by Rev. Campbell will "bring the community together," Wright said.
The festival gives coastal Georgia residents "unity to stand together so these things don't continue to happen to any other child," Estella Wright said.
“This case may seem extreme” but “similar incidents are occurring on a regular basis,” Butler said.
1R.U.S.H., Inc., one of the event sponsors, "is the organizing voice of the community," said Estella Wright, President and CEO of 1R.U.S.H., Inc."During the membership drive (Monday, April 2, 2012) we are hoping people with sign up for the organization so we can take a stand for the community," Wright said.
Before racist white senators arbitrarily expelled Campbell and other black lawmakers from office, he pushed for laws for equal education, integrated jury boxes, homestead exemptions, abolishment of imprisonment for debt, open access to public facilities, and fair voting procedures, according to the Georgia Encyclopedia.
The expelled black lawmakers, led by Campbell and Henry McNeill Turner, lobbied for federal intervention in Washington.
A Reconstruction Georgia lightening rod, Campbell was no stranger to lawsuits, jail and wide-ranging accusations.
In 1876, Campbell, was convicted of malfeasance in office. Handcuffed and chained, Campbell was whisked from the Savannah jail to serve one year in a Georgia labor camp.
Campbell supporters say these and other charges were racist, politically motivated and trumped up - as some occurred during Reconstruction Georgia and while reconstruction across the south lost headway.
"Just before every election they commence to intimidate by arresting all the prominent colored men. As usual they have arrested me again," Tunis G. Campbell said.
The entire black community of Darien, Georgia turned out to protest Campbell's trials, according to "Forty Acres and a Mule: The Ruined Hope of Reconstruction" by Danielle Alexander.
After his release, Campbell fled north and traveled to Washington to meet with President Rutherford B. Hayes.
A free Northern black missionary, Campbell was appointed to supervise land claims and resettlement in Georgia.
Working hard through the years on Reconstruction Georgia, voting rights and equal education, the lives of Campbell and his family were always in peril.
His home was torched. Campbell even survived being poisoned.
Campbell wrote at least two books:
"Hotel Keepers, Head Waiters, and Housekeepers' Guide" (1848) and the "Sufferings of the Reverend T. G. Campbell and His Family in Georgia" (1877).
Everyone is cordially invited to attend the 4th Annual Tunis G. Campbell Birthday Festival from Friday, March 30 – Monday, April 2, 2012 – on the 200th anniversary of his birth (April 1, 1812).
Scroll down to see the entire festival itinerary including a roundtable on the the "mass incarceration" of African American youth, plus related links and more info about civil rights leaders Tunis Campbell and Septima Clark.
Reconstruction Georgia Collage Caption (above photo):
#1 (Upper Left) Political Cartoon that depicts Mitchell County, Georgia whites holding freed blacks down after the Camilla, Georgia Massacre of 1868.
The massacre was one of the more violent episodes in Reconstruction Georgia.
The Camilla Massacre remained part of southwest Georgia's hidden past until 1998, when Camilla residents publicly acknowledged the massacre for the first time and commemorated its victims.
At least nine freedmen were killed, and as many as 25 to 30 were wounded.
No whites were killed or seriously wounded.
The political cartoon was drawn by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly.
#2 (Lower Left) An “Old Negro” (former slave) with horn with which slaves were called.
The photograph was taken by Russell Lee in April 1939 near Marshall, TX.
The United States Farm Security Administration or Office of War Information domestic photographic units photo (taken by on-duty federal employee Russell Lee) appeared on the Library of Congress website and is now also on Wikipedia under public domain.
#3 (Upper Right) Blacks voting during Reconstruction Georgia are depicted in a political cartoon.
A Georgia Studies image appearing on GALILEO and the University of Georgia Libraries Georgia Info website (an extensive online resource about Georgia. ) as part of the Digital Library of Georgia.
#4 (Lower Right) Photo of the ruins of houses in Savannah, Georgia (circa 1865).
The historic photo was apparently taken just after Gen. Sherman's March to the Sea, the name commonly given to the Savannah Campaign in Georgia from November 15, 1864 to December 21, 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army in the American Civil War.
The campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta, Georgia, on November 16 and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21.
The photo is from the University of Georgia Libraries (Special Collections Libraries) in the Richard B. Russell Building in Athens, GA – the home of the Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library and the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies (specifically the UGA Libraries/Reconstruction in Georgia/Selected Bibliography of Georgia Room Holdings).
U.S.A. Shame: The “mass incarceration” of African-American youth is focus of event in Brunswick, GA:
Caption (above photo) The Disturbing Irony of Shared Sign Not Lost on Thousands of Black Americans: Kansas African American Museum and Sedgwick County Jail in Wichita, Kansas. While the sign has a more benign meaning, many say perceived reality speaks louder than reality. The Kansas African American Museum (located in an historic church) is partially encircled by (and shares same lot) as the Sedgwick County Courthouse and County Jail in Wichita, KS.
http://wiki.worldflicks.org/kansas_african_american_museum.html
(Once at website, close box to see satellite view)
http://wiki.worldflicks.org/kansas_african_american_museum.html
(Once at website, close box to see satellite view)
A roundtable discussion and symposium on “Mass Incarceration in our Community” will be held from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 31, 2012 at Selden Park in Brunswick, Georgia.
The roundtable will include five presentations and feature labor rights leaders, the International Longshoreman’s Association union, and the Service Employees International Union (S.E.I.U.).
A banquet will be held at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 31, 2012 at Selden Park in Brunswick.
The cost is $25.
The banquet features Jamal Toure' (below) - Lecturer, author, living historian performer.
Attorney Jamal Touré, J.D. is known as a Djeli (living historian or griot) who can comment on the lives of African people at home and in the diaspora.
He is one of the first Gullah Geechees to be charged with that responsibility.
Touré founded Day Clean: The African Soul to inform, enlighten, and inspire African people regarding their cultures, and history.
Sponsors of the 4th Annual Tunis G. Campbell Birthday Festival include 1R.U.S.H., Inc., the Purple Cloud Legal Aide Defense Fund and Brunswick Youth Works, Inc.
The events that are planned to honor Tunis Campbell “coincide and continue his courageous quest for social justice,” Butler said. “Please join us in this commemorative weekend of events.”
A 19th Century African American freedom fighter, Campbell “urged newly freed blacks of Coastal Georgia to develop educational institutions and obtain landownership.”
Campbell championed social justice issues and impacted both national and international politics.
Festival organizers request public support of the festival by “having your youth group participate in the Septima Clark Parade."
The "Septima Clark Parade for Education of Our Youth" will be held beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 31, 2012.
Participating youth groups must line up no later than 9 a.m. at Perry Park located on Cleburne between J and K streets in Brunswick.
The parade is named for civil rights activist and educator Septima P. Clark, who became known as the "Queen mother" or "Grandmother of the American Civil Rights Movement" in the United States.
If your organization cannot participate, nonprofit informational tables will be provided at a cost of five dollars per table or $25 for a for-profit table.
“This allows the communities in Coastal Georgia to learn more about positive youth organizations and agencies,” Butler said.
For more information on the festival call (912) 342-7590.
4th Annual Tunis G. Campbell Birthday Fest
March 30th – April 2nd, 2012
Brunswick, Georgia
Theme: “Exodus From Pity to Power”
The schedule of events and activities are open to the public
Friday, March 30, 2012
7:00 p.m
Educator’s Reception
Location: Roxy Theatre, Brunswick, Georgia
Saturday, March 31, 2012
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Septima Clark Parade for Education of Our Youth
( Parade Route: From Perry Park to Altama Ave. and G Streets in Brunswick)
12 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Round Table Discussion/Symposium 5 presentations (40 min)
Location: Selden Park in Brunswick
*Topic: Mass Incarceration in our Community
Featuring: Labor Rights Leaders, The International Longshoreman’s Association union, and the Service Employees International Union (S.E.I.U.)
8:00 p.m.
Banquet: Cost: $25 per person (Dressy Casual)
Location: Selden Park in Brunswick
The event includes a performance by Jamal Toure':
Attorney, lecturer, author, and living historian performer
Sunday, April 1, 2012
10:00 a.m
Worship Service
Location: The Baptist Worship Center in Crescent, GA
(The site of 1,000 acre purchase initiated by Tunis Campbell)
Delivering the sermon will be Queen Quet Marquetta Goodwine, Chieftess, Spokesperson, and Head-of-State for the Gullah/Geechee Nation
Monday, April 2, 2012
Membership Drive
"1R.U.S.H., Inc. is the organizing voice of the community," said Estella Wright, President and CEO of 1R.U.S.H., Inc.
"During the membership drive we are hoping people with sign up for the organization so we can take a stand for the community," Wright said.
"During the membership drive we are hoping people with sign up for the organization so we can take a stand for the community," Wright said.
Information about Civil Rights Legends Tunis Campbell and Septima Clark:
Info about the history of Tunis Campbell (April 1, 1812 – December 4, 1891):
Tunis Campbell (April 1, 1812 – December 4, 1891) was a prominent African American politician of the 19th century, and a major figure in Reconstruction Georgia.
Born in Middlebrook, New Jersey, Campbell served as a Justice of the Peace, a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention, and as a Georgia state senator. He died in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 4, 1891.
After Union general William T. Sherman captured Savannah in December 1864, on his march to the sea, and Congress set up the Freedmen's Bureau in March 1865, Campbell was appointed to supervise land claims and resettlement on five Georgia islands: Ossabaw, Delaware, Colonels, St. Catherines, and Sapelo.
Georgia planters, who received pardons from U.S. president Andrew Johnson, regained control of these islands in 1866. Campbell quickly purchased 1,250 acres at Belle Ville in McIntosh County and there established an association of black landowners to divide parcels and profit from the land.
In 1867 Congress ordered a further Reconstruction of the South.
Campbell worked to register voters before being elected as a justice of the peace, a delegate to the state constitutional convention, and a state senator from the Second Senatorial District (Liberty, McIntosh, and Tattnall counties).
As a justice of the peace, minister, and political boss, Campbell organized a black power structure in McIntosh County that protected freed people from white abuses, whether against their bodies or in labor negotiations.
He headed a 300-strong African American militia that guarded him from reprisals by the Ku Klux Klan or others, even though his home was burned, he was poisoned, and his family lived in constant fear.
In 1867, with a goal to help freedmen vote, Campbell was appointed to the Board of Registration in Georgia.
He was elected to congress as a senator in Georgia in 1868 only to be expelled from office because white congressmen agreed that blacks didn't have the right to hold office.
Tunis was able to return to office in 1871, but lost in 1872 and eventually imprisoned in a Georgia labor camp before fleeing the state.
Source: Georgia Encyclopedia and Wikipedia
The sketch (circa 1848) of Tunis Campbell is the only known image of the prominent black politician and minister.
Original sketch drawing is signed/credited “Hartwell” – the full name of artist is unavailable.
The sketch is from his book "Hotel Keepers, Head Waiters, and Housekeepers' Guide" (1848) published in Boston by Coolidge and Wiley, 1848
Campbell also wrote the book "Sufferings of the Reverend T. G. Campbell and His Family in Georgia" (1877)
Info about the history of Septima Clark (May 3, 1898–December 15, 1987):
Septima Poinsette Clark (May 3, 1898–December 15, 1987) was an American educator and civil rights activist.
Clark developed the literacy and citizenship workshops that played an important role in the drive for voting rights and civil rights for African Americans in the American Civil Rights Movement."
She became known as the "Queen mother" or "Grandmother of the American Civil Rights Movement" in the United States.
Read more about the history of Septima Clark on Wikipedia.
Source: Wikipedia
Links to Septima Clark photos and stories:
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Related links/info:
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Sponsors of the 4th Annual Tunis G. Campbell Birthday Festival include 1R.U.S.H., Inc., the Purple Cloud Legal Aide Defense Fund and Brunswick Youth Works, Inc.:
1R.U.S.H., Inc.
c/o Mrs. Estella Wright, President and CEO
3441 Cypress Mill road
Suite 203-4
Brunswick, Georgia
31520
Mrs. Estella Wright, President/CEO of 1R.U.S.H. Inc.
786-285-1297
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Brunswick Youth Works, Inc.
3441 Cypress Mill Road, Suite 4
Brunswick, Georgia
31520
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Links about civil rights activist Rev. Zack Lyde, pastor of St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church of Brunswick, GA:
Rev. Zack Lucius Lyde
former chairman of the Georgia Green Party, a Gullah Geechee pastor, leader in the environmental justice movement, founder of “Save the People, Inc.” that addressed environmental racism issues
1803 G Street
Brunswick, GA
Associated Press story on RuffWire.com:
Federal Judge Ruling: Brunswick GA. Officials Violated Rev. Zack Lyde Rights
44-Page Decision: U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood rules in favor of civil rights leader who took on right-wing Tea Party
Rev. Zack Lyde: Brunswick officials violated his right to free speech and used an unconstitutional city ordinance to falsely imprison him
Florida Times-Union Story (August 26, 2009) on Jacksonville.com:
Rev. Zack Lyde arrested for protesting a Brunswick health care protest
Rev. Lyde argued with health care protesters, but did not have a permit
Black Agenda Report (BAR): BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon reports on the unfair national coverage of the arrest of Rev. Zack Lyde - who later won his federal lawsuit against the police - despite the biased criticism by the national media of the Brunswick, Georgia pastor:
View a copy of the Rev. Zack Lyde civil rights lawsuit that he won in federal court:
Rev. Zack Lyde and Jeana Brown co-founded the Redneck Party, a pro-labor coalition.
The Redneck Party PAC is a "grassroots coalition of black, white and immigrant workers founded to be a Southern labor movement to remember our nation's labor struggles and to honor all those who contribute by the toil of their hands," Brown said.
Contact Jeana Brown at 1-912-294-3167.
Website of the Redneck Party (PAC):
Redneck Party on Facebook:
Citizens Media Resource story about the Redneck Party and Beer Party Protesting the Republican Party Debate: GOP's 'Cheap-Labor Conservatives' Can No Longer Take the South for Granted:
Coverage samples of Redneck Party protest of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Oct. 25 in Franklin, TN:
"What Fake Reform of the Prison State Looks Like: Georgia's Criminal Justice Reform Commission" (June 10, 2011): End Mass Incarceration/Defending Our Immigrant Neighbors by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
“The governor’s commission needs reforming itself,” declared longtime human rights activist Rev. Zack Lyde of Brunswick GA.
“It’s too narrow, it’s too shallow, it’s too corporate.
They need to come out of that room with the consultants, the D.A.s, the contractors and the insiders.
They need to hold hearings in Savannah and Valdosta, in Macon and Columbus, in Albany, Augusta and Atlanta, and one or two hearings inside the prisons themselves.
A commission that did that would get a glimmer of what real reform might look like. Our state’s obsession with prisons, jails, profit and punishment does not serve justice and does not make us safer, It’s like an unhealthy attachment to Pharaoh, and it’s time for us to let it go.”
The Other Economic Summit (TOES) USA during G-8 Summit in Brunswick in June 2004:
"We pay taxes to cover the costs associated with the public spaces we want to use. Many of the corporations the G8 leaders represent don't pay taxes. What right do they have to tell us what to do and what not to do with the public spaces we've paid for?"
The Rev. Zack Lyde in Brunswick said that police repeatedly entered his church (St. John's Missionary Baptist Church) saying they wanted to worship there, but after "gathering intelligence" and intimidating the congregation, they always left before it came time to pray.
Rev. Lyde played a leading role in the effort to organize a local response to the G8 Summit.
He applied for permits on behalf of local organizers a march and rally and a prayer vigil, and when the Brunswick City government "lost" his applications, he went to court to obtain venues for these activities as well as for the TOES conference.
Rev. Lyde is a descendant of the Gullah Geechee people, formerly enslaved people who were given title to islands off the Georgia Coast, including Sea Island, at the end of the Civil War.
The Gullah Geechee people where pushed off this land as it was privatized and turned into valuable real estate.
The re-enslavement process began with debt, indentured servitude, and finally a diaspora, as many Gullah Geechee became economic and environmental refugees.
This pattern is precisely how economic policies promoted by the G8 play out in coastal Georgia, and in the third world in general. The Gullah Geechee have no difficulty recognizing the G8 for what they are, and call them "the Greedy 8".
Institute for Public Accuracy story/info about the “backstory” of the G-8 Summit in Brunswick, Georgia and the Iraq Resolution – that includes quotes from Rev. Zack Lyde:
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Delivering the sermon on Sunday, April 1, 2012 is Queen Quet Marquetta Goodwine, Chieftess, Spokesperson, and Head-of-State for the Gullah/Geechee Nation
Gullah/Geechee Nation Headquarters
Post Office Box 1109
St. Helena Island, SC
29920
(843) 838-1171
Gullah/Geechee Nation website:
Facebook fan page of the Gullah/Geechee Nation:
LinkedIn page for Queen Quet Marquetta Goodwine, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation:
Personal website of Queen Quet Marquetta Goodwine, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation:
Blog of Queen Quet Marquetta Goodwine, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation:
The Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor: Designated by an act of Congress on October 12, 2006
Official website of the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor:
United States Congressman James E. Clyburn (D-SC) message about the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor:
National Public Radio story about the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor and the Gullah/Geechee culture:
National Park Service info about the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Act:
Copy of the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Act:
The purposes of this Act:
(1) recognize the important contributions made to American culture and history by African Americans known as the Gullah/Geechee who settled in the coastal counties of South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida;
(2) assist State and local governments and public and private entities in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida in interpreting the story of the Gullah/Geechee and preserving Gullah/Geechee folklore, arts, crafts, and music; and
(3) assist in identifying and preserving sites, historical data, artifacts, and objects associated with the Gullah/Geechee for the benefit and education of the public.
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1208 London St.
Brunswick, GA
31520
(912) 267-7409
ILA Local 1423 Brunswick, Georgia
ILA Local 1863 Brunswick, Georgia
ILA Local 2046 Garden City, Georgia
ILA Local 1414 Savannah, Georgia
ILA Local 1475 Savannah, Georgia
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Service Employees International Union (S.E.I.U.)
SEIU Local 5000 - Public
BRANCH Office
1776 Peachtree Rd. NW
Suite 415
Atlanta, GA
30309
(617) 376-0220
SEIU Workers United - Local Union
BRANCH Office
4405 Mall Blvd.
Suite 600
Union City, GA
30291
(646) 448-6402
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Contact info for Georgia historian/Attorney Amir Jamal Toure' - Lecturer, author, living historian performer
Day Clean - The African Soul
912-220-5966
Day Clean Soul on Facebook
DayCleanSoul on Twitter
Amir Toure'
@daycleansoul
Port City - Savannah, GA
"African Sun a humble soul seeking to fulfill his role in this world, loving his people."
WSAV-TV reporter Kim Gusby has this February 21, 2010 Black History Month story with “living historian” Jamal Toure' who shares the story of Rev. Tunis Campbell and Ulysses Houston
[vodpod id=Video.16085772&w=425&h=350&fv=]
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Reconstruction Georgia:
A story that includes Rev. Tunis G. Campbell on Reconstruction Georgia entitled "Forty Acres and a Mule: The Ruined Hope of Reconstruction" by Danielle Alexander in a series of stories on the Civil War financed by The National Endowment for the Humanities:
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Black History stories on Progressive Pupil:
Black Youth and Mass Incarceration:
The Black Youth Project: “The Price of Choosing Jails Over Schools” by Latoya Peterson, The Root (April 9, 2011) and it includes the photo of black youth behind bars:
A new Mass Incarceration article in the The New Yorker Magazine has scary statistics:
A Critic at Large: “The Caging of America - Why do we lock up so many people?” by Adam Gopnik (January 30, 2012)
- For many poor people in America, particularly poor black men, prison is ordinary life, like high school and college is ordinary life for whites.
- More than half of all black men without a high-school diploma go to prison during their lives
- Mass incarceration is perhaps a fundamental fact, as slavery was a fundamental fact of 1850
- More black men in the grip of the U.S. criminal-justice system than were in slavery
- More Americans are under “correctional supervision” — more than six million — than were in the Gulag under Stalin
- For privileged/professional people, the jail experience is a mere brush
- No other country even approaches the number of Americans in prison
- Lockuptown is the second largest "city" in the United States
Children’s Defense Fund: "Cradle to the Grave" effort includes photo of young kid on milk carton being booked:
Videos: Black Leaders Address Crisis:
Washington Times: Training black teens how to DWB (Drive While Black) by Jeneba Ghatt
Only approximately 7% of the American population is African American, but they make up 46% of the total 2.1 million male inmates in jail or prison (U.S. Department of Justice, 2000).
A wide racial disproportion of the incarcerated population in each state: the proportion of blacks in prison populations exceeded the proportion among state residents in twenty states; the percent of blacks incarcerated was five times greater than the resident population.
(source 2000 U.S. Census data via Wikipedia)
(source 2000 U.S. Census data via Wikipedia)
A black male born in 1991 has a 29% chance of spending time in prison at some point in his life.
Nearly one in three African American males aged 20–29 are under some form of criminal justice supervision whether imprisoned, jailed, on parole or probation.
One out of nine African American men will be incarcerated between the ages of 20 and 34.
Black males ages 30 to 34 have the highest incarceration rate of any race/ethnicity.
(According to America Community Survey via Wikipedia)
Georgia Hall of Shame:
Slavery and racism did not end in the 19th Century:
Festival organizers hope everyone will watch the movie "Slavery by Another Name."
"Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil War to World War II"
By Pulitzer Prizing winning author Douglas A. Blackmon
Publisher: Doubleday, ISBN 978-0-385-50625-0
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Sherman's March to the Sea and Special Field Orders, No. 15:
Gen. William Sherman's March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the Savannah Campaign in Georgia from November 15, 1864 to December 21, 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army in the American Civil War.
The campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta, Georgia, on November 16 and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21.
Sherman's military campaigns of 1864 and 1865 freed many slaves, who greeted him "as a second Moses or Aaron" and joined his marches through Georgia and the Carolinas by the tens of thousands.
The fate of refugees became a pressing military and political issue.
Some abolitionists accused Sherman of doing little to alleviate the precarious living conditions of the freed slaves.
To address this issue, on January 12, 1865, Sherman met in Savannah with Secretary of War Stanton and with twenty local black leaders.
Freedmen & Southern Society Project: Newspaper Account of a Meeting between Black Religious Leaders and Union Military Authorities (that occurred on Jan. 12, 1865 at 8 p.m.)
Four days later, Sherman issued his Special Field Orders, No. 15.
The orders provided for the settlement of 40,000 freed slaves and black refugees on land expropriated from white landowners in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Those orders, which became the basis of the claim that the Union government had promised freed slaves "40 acres and a mule", were revoked later that year by President Andrew Johnson.
In his Memoirs, Sherman noted political pressure to encourage the escape of slaves, in part to avoid the possibility that "able-bodied slaves will be called into the military service of the rebels."
Sherman thought concentration on such policies would have delayed the "successful end" of the war and the liberation of all slaves.
He went on to summarize vividly his hard-war philosophy and to add, in effect, that he really did not want the help of liberated slaves in subduing the South:
“My aim then was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. ‘Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’ I did not want them to cast in our teeth what General Hood had once done at Atlanta, that we had to call on their slaves to help us to subdue them. But, as regards kindness to the race ..., I assert that no army ever did more for that race than the one I commanded at Savannah.”
Source: Wikipedia
