Why The History of Lynching Is No Laughing Matter
This article was written by Rev. CJ Rhodes who serves as the pastor of Mt. Helm Baptist Church in Jackson, MS. It has been published here with permission.
Note: The views here are solely of the individual author and do not necessarily represent the perspective of The Witness.
“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
Ida B. Wells Barnett
The words stung on Sunday, November 11. Cindy Hyde-Smith, our U.S. Senator appointed by Governor Phil Bryant to fulfill Thad Cochran’s unfulfilled term, appeared in a viral video saying that she would be on the front row of a public hanging if invited by the avid supporter seen with her in the video. These remarks at a campaign stop were made November 2 but apparently only made their social media rounds nine days later.
A “public hanging” solicited the worst images of black men and women swinging like strange fruit from sycamore trees while dozens or hundreds of white, mostly Christian, men and women congregated to point and smile with glee. The Senator is presently in a run-off election with Mike Espy, a black Mississippian, and that fact adds greater ire.
As more than a million persons viewed the video nationwide on Veterans Day, Mississippians and other Americans decried the language. Subsequently, Senator Hyde-Smith showed no remorse, no repentance, no understanding of or appreciation for the history of lynching in the state she now serves in the U.S. Congress. In her formal statement issued late Sunday evening, she stated, “In referencing the one who invited me, I used an exaggerated expression of regard, and any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous.” What is truly ridiculous is her inability to see how her words can be logically associated with lynching and her flippant dismissal suggests insensitive misanthropy.
A Tragic History
According to the NAACP, “Mississippi had the highest lynchings from 1882-1968 with 581.” Mississippi’s most infamous lynching occurred in Money, Mississippi in 1955 when 14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched for allegedly offending Carolyn Bryant, a white woman. Hyde-Smith grew up in Brookhaven, Lincoln County, where the last reported public lynching was 1928. There are many African Americans alive today who themselves or whose parents experienced the terror of the KKK or ordinary white mobs terrorizing communities throughout the state. As recent as 2018, there have been alleged lynchings of young, black men.
It should not be missed by Hyde-Smith, a white Southern woman, that many lynchings occurred due to white men “protecting” the purity of white women. Many black men were killed for minor misdemeanors, if they committed a crime at all, in order to sustain the order of white supremacy, of which white women were benefactors. It is beyond reason that Hyde-Smith is oblivious to this. In a similar incident, Trent Lott, our former Mississippi U.S. Senator, was forced to resign in 2002 due to comments wherein he suggested America would be a better place had Strom Thurmond, a rabid segregationist, won the presidency in 1948.
Furthermore, the response from MS Governor Phil Bryant has been insulting. The state’s highest elected official swiftly denounced State Senator Chris McDaniel’s racial comments that he made regarding blacks’ dependence upon government “handouts.” However, Bryant came to Hyde-Smith’s defense by calling this a controversy political spin.
A New Day
This year Mission Mississippi, a Christian organization founded to foster racial reconciliation, celebrates 25 years of ministry. Its present focus is “to see Christians living out the grace of the gospel unhindered by racism, racial strife, racial prejudice, racial hatred, and racial division throughout Mississippi and the world.” Here’s a time for Governor Bryant, the Mississippi GOP, and others throughout our state to do just that. Mississippi cannot heal our ugly racist past or present if we continue to belittle the real pain and harm it has caused.
While Hyde-Smith’s comments certainly warrant a serious discussion about her resignation, that is unlikely to happen and ultimately only form part of a more comprehensive response.
What is most important now is for Mississippians of good will to mobilize and vote in record numbers Tuesday, November 27. I encourage you to vote for Mike Espy for U.S. Senate, sending a resounding message to the nation that Mississippi will not be held back in the midnight of our terrible and terrorizing past. By electing Espy, it will be the first time an African American would be elected to the U.S. Senate (our two black Reconstruction era Senators were appointed by the State Legislature).
There are those around the nation and in our state who maintain it is ridiculous to believe a black person can be elected to the Senate. Let’s show ourselves and the watching world that a new day is dawning in Mississippi, a day that belongs to all of us and not just the privileged few.
AT
White Supremacy and racism is rearing its ugly head again in the United States and has done so since the inception of this country. We can ignore this, make excuses and act like it’s not happening or we can trust those who know it well and do something about it, like be salt and light. Let’s not be surprised that most of our country is “Not” born again and are liable to do some very, very wicked things in God’s name– America history declares this fact. Also everyone that quotes Scripture is not saved, salvation is often made evident through love, sacrifice, compassion, remorse, repair and repentance.
Thomas W.
You could entirely be correct Mr. Bear Man. She could very well have known, intended, and purposely said it in the context you and others believe.
Or she could very well have not. She could just be ignorant, tone deaf, or in the moment so. We’ve all said things before taking the time to consider how others will take it, even if we aren’t typically tone deaf or ignorant. We’re human beings, and an entire history of a culture doesn’t always go through our heads right before we speak.
Asking what other white clergy think won’t help, because they can’t mind read her either. But I have seen many white people, clergy and other wise, share your concern. The reason it is a concern is because many white Mississippians are far less ignorant, far more cognant of our history, and far away ready to be as far away from it as possible.
Also, it’s not naivety, nor is it sensitivity. Your filter is just different. Our filters like to take words, pass them through another lens, and spit them out differently. Seeing “lynching” instead of “public hanging” is a strawman to her context due to your filter. Not because you’re naive or sensitive.
And we all do this. Less than a couple weeks ago, conservatives were bashing Hillary for her “all black people look alike” comment. But this was largely taken out of the context as well.
I entirely agree with you that she should apologize, especially as a Christian. I also believe that we, as Christians, ought to believe them when they testify that was not their meaning intended or otherwise. That we as Christians can be quick to forgive and move on and forward rather than descend into degrading labels like “racist” (as some have or worse). Her lack of response to your requested level of expectation is not enough for us to deny our love in response to her in the first place. Especially as she lacks a track record of this type of incident as far as I’m aware.
My point is, I can’t read her mind, and you can’t either. If we conclude her intent, put words in her mouth, it’s because of external things like her skin color and political party by which we judge for or against her. Which we as Christians should be slow to judge so that we judge rightly, rather than with bias.
The Bear man
It is really interesting to read these post especially from Mr. Thomas. We are not talking about some young person making a statement but a well seasoned one who has been involved in politics and quite frankly who passes herself off as a Christian. What I want to know is what her pastor has to say and the many white clergy about this statement. I have a name or two on the lynching wall and find it terrible to think a statement of such would be made. Think about it…of all the places I would want to be invited to that I would arrive early for is a hanging…in Mississippi. Let me think is hanging associated with westerns in the deep south? To suggest others are so naive in their thinking is insulting as well. As an African American I am too familiar with the line of thinking when others disrespect us to be told how sensitive we are and its just taken out of context. No it is not taken out of context for out of the heart flows the issues of life. That good book that southerners are so proud of to hold up a standard(Bible) teaches if I offend even the least among you to respond in love and this is what she refuses to do. She may continue to run and even win but we know that her allegiance lies to her base….and you who are defending her and her statements please share who that is.
Dee Dee Atkins
“I am very sorry, I do apologize for my comment and understand well how it was not tasteful or respectful to the people I serve”….. Was all a sincere Christian woman would be lead to say straight from her heart… As much as it was left to her to keep the peace and show sincere love to ALL the people she serve. Was it out of her heart that the mouth spoke? She seems to know the scriptures in the book of James she spoke about recently.
Thomas W.
J V.
I know it’s hard to see more than one possibility.
I’ll give you 1. But the possibilities are infinite in reality. Your conclusion blocks your imagination otherwise for multiple reasons in which cognitive dissonance takes hold.
For instance, I grew up watching westerns. In many westerns there’s often public hangings. Very few of which had anything to do with lynchings. They’re all terrible things to watch/observe. I don’t have a childhood immersed in or surrounded by specific hangings like Mississippi lynchings of black people though I grew up here. Thus, I didn’t take her comment that way, though I can easily see why others do whose worldview is affected by that.
It’s entirely possible that her comment is fully in the context of being in general, as a comment on her loyalty to her friend in admittance that hangings are something no one wants to be apart of, but would suffer with if asked. She could have easily have referenced the front lines of a battlefield to make the same point.
It is your filter, as is with others, where the extrapolation occurs. She did not say “lynchings”. Period. The inference she meant that instead is an irrational assumption, being twisted by one’s filter. (At least until additional information becomes available (i.e. her admittance, otherwise)).
So whereas it’s entirely a bad statement because of lack of sensitivity to many others who will share that filter, and she’s likely guilty of being tone deaf or living under a rock, I accept her position that lynchings was not what was meant, inferred, or intended.
Part of combating evil is being thoroughly self aware of our own bias, judmentalism, and how we apply that unequally lest we compound rather than alleviate these issues.
Another example of where this is occurring in your filter is on the presumption of people being “unmoved”. I’ve seen lots and lots of people, including whites addressing this issue. Many, having a better understanding than Smith of others worldviews/filters that recognized the insensitive statement. What is the # of “unmoved” to you? What does “moving” even look like that isn’t subjective? If you are making statements that lack concrete metrics and imply ambiguity, it’s likely a sign that dissonance has set in. You thus can’t see it interpreted in any other way.
Honestly, if Espy wants to win votes here all he has to do is accept her clarification, forgive anyway, and move on. He had a great, positive commercial in the initial election. He could entirely lead by example here. However, falsely insinuating she’s a racist will only make things more divided, and he’d be more likely to lose votes.
Thomas W.
Grace,
I think that’s because it wouldn’t make much of a difference in reality. Remorse won’t be taken with forgiveness, but as a confirmation of the extrapolated insinuation.
Not saying I don’t agree with you. I think it’s more appropriate regardless of the outcome, but if her context is entirely NOT what is projected by others, then their reaction owes her an apology all the same. And the only people who honestly know her intent/context is her and Jesus.
J. V.
I say this as simply as I can that there was no other way to interpret her exact words “public hanging” as anything other than lynching here in Mississippi. It was horrifying to hear this from a politician and I hope with my whole heart that excuses will stop being made for this behavior. There are so many good and intelligent people hearing this story and are unmoved. I hope more will come to understand why her statement is so offensive so that we can be united against hate and not be complicit bystanders. I think of this quote: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. To anyone that reads my comment, thank you and I say it with peace.
Grace
I think the fact that she is defending her comments and refuses to acknowledge that her comments could have been offensive, is the bigger problem. We all say things we don’t mean or are taken out of context (although this was a pretty terrible statement). Her inability to show any remorse is very telling.
Thomas W.
And now The Witness is directly suggesting who to vote for? Poor form.
It’s understandable how many took her comment. And it is likely all you can see at this point. However, it’s also entirely possible and likely that was not her intent or meaning in usage as a reference to lynchings. And whereas, I fully agree in 2018 we ought to be more mindful of how others will take what we say, expecting people to be perfect in this is a bit overboard, lacking in consideration and grace.