Since it's Black History Month, let's drop some black history on you with a trip back to the year 1912 and the predominantly African-American community of Oscarville GA.
Two black men from Oscarville in Georgia's Forsyth County were accused of raping two white women. Despite conflicting testimonies, the two men were found guilty and subsequently hanged to death.
Interesting thing about rape cases in the American judicial system is that it is usually difficult to arrive at a consensus of a guilty verdict. From undermining the character of the victim to attempts to create empathy for the accused with stuff "boys will be boys, you know, and shouldn't have their lives ruined for one moment's indiscretion." And in case you're wondering, a judge just last month overturned a conviction of a young white man using that very logic.
Long story made short, the odds are against the victim for the successful prosecution of a rape case.
Unless the victim is white and the accused is black and suddenly the wheels of just spin with astonishing speed and efficiency to deliver a guilty verdict.
I imagine there have been cases of legitimate assault but a lot of these cases range from some young black man just looking at a white woman wrong to there being actual consensual sex between a black man and a white woman but an accusation of rape is made to push back on that scandal.
Whatever happened in Oscarville, there was a rush to judgement, two young men were put to death after a questionable trial which leads us to the next part of the story.
The death of those two men was not enough justice for the aggrieved white folks of the area.
Oscarville itself had to die.
White mobs set fire to black churches and black-owned businesses. Eventually the entire black population was driven out.
Today, Oscarville sits at the bottom of Lake Sidney Lanier, a reservoir created by the completion of Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River in 1956.
Now I learned of the story of Oscarville GA thanks to a piece presented by Amber Ruffin on her show on the Peacock streaming service.
Now what is most distressing to me is not that I learned of a predominantly African-American community that was eradicated by an act of white terrorism.
What is most distressing to me is that Oscarville GA now brings the number of predominantly African-American communities that I know about that were eradicated by an act of white terrorism to seven.
That's right, there's not one or two but SEVEN times when white marauding into black communities to violently attack people and wipe those communities off the map.
Here are the other six.
Wilmington NC (1898)
In 1898, more than 1500 white men attacked and burned the only black daily newspaper in the state and overthrew the legitimately elected municipal government. The white men forced the duly elected government leaders to resign at gun point. Prominent African Americans and their white supporters were banished from the city.
After that the North Carolina legislature passed a new constitution that raised barriers to voter registration, imposed poll taxes and literacy tests to put those black folks in their place.
Tulsa Oklahoma (1911)
In May of 1911, a white girl accused a Black man of assault in downtown Tulsa. So shit went down with a wave of white men with guns and torches swarming into the predominantly black community and killing hundreds of people and eradicating an otherwise prosperous African American community from the map.
Colfax, Louisiana (1873)
Approximately 150 Black men were murdered by white men with guns and cannons for trying to freely assemble at a courthouse.
Atlanta (1906)
Bogus reports of black men sexually assaulting white women drove as many as 2,000 white men to the streets. Communities were destroyed and the unofficial death toll was up to 100.
Elaine, Arkansas (1919)
Blacks outnumbered whites 10 to 1 and were demanding economic justice and forming a union to secure better wages and working conditions.
Well, fuck that, said white guys!
Hundreds of white men attacked Black residents with reports of over 200 Black people killed. Others were arrested and tortured while in custody, forced to “confess” about an insurrection with 12 men receiving the death penalty.
Rosewood, Florida (1923)
It began with an accusation that black man raped a white woman. In retaliation, a white army descended on to Rosewood FL, killing 150 residents and burning the town to the ground.
Now here's another thing I want to talk about and some stupid racist shit that's going down today.
There are currently laws and executive orders either on the books or under consideration that would make a teacher telling their classes about any of these stories from American history a crime.
If I were a teacher of American history and I wanted to teach my students about what happened in Wilmington NC in 1898 or in Tulsa OK in 1911, I could lose my job, be fined thousands of dollars or even spend time in jail.
These laws and executive orders are being pushed by Republican legislatures and governors in an hysterical response to the teaching of "critical race theory" which they say is bad and teaches kids to hate America.
"Critical race theory" joins "Sharia law" as the latest thing that really isn't a thing for right wing nut jobs to be afraid of.
Here we are in the early part of the freaking 21st century and the battles against racism still need to be fought.
Even as state governments try to silence teachers in the fight against racism.
Thank goodness Amber Ruffin is on the case.
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