If this were the 1880's-1930's there would be at least one lynching victim hanging from a tree...

[Poll_Blind]

...this morning. A posse would have gathered together and would have sought out black males fitting the description she gave last night. They would have dragged the man from his home, possibly set fire to his house (with wife and child inside), stabbed him, strung him up with wire, cut off his penis, set him on fire- all while still alive.

From History of Lynching in the United States:

"The lynching era encompasses roughly the five decades between the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of the Great Depression. During these years we may estimate that there were 2,018 separate incidents of lynching in which at least 2,462 African-American men, women and children met their deaths in the grasp of southern mobs, comprised mostly of whites. Although lynchings and mob killings occurred before 1880, notably during early Reconstruction when blacks were enfranchised, radical racism and mob violence peaked during the 1890s in a surge of terrorism that did not dissipate until well into the twentieth century".

  That is the power of Ashley Todd's accusation. With only a slight twist on the "Black Brute" caricature, she has bridged the racism of the lynching era to 2008. And there are still many willing takers.

  If we discount such accusations, we do so at our own peril as a society and at the expense of all progress made since then.

PB

[wanpete]

1. yep.

[NeedleCast]

2. Luckily it's not

and we've made at least some progress.

[sjdnb]

9. Sadly, I'm not so sure about that ...read this last night

Was his death a hate crime?
Police in a small Texas town say the killing of Brandon McClelland → was not racially motivated. His family and others here beg to differ, point to history.

By Howard Witt | Chicago Tribune correspondent
October 5, 2008


Was his death a hate crime?

[Connonym]

11. Can what's her name's charges include hate crime if there is no one victim?

I'm pissed about the racial aspect but I'm also pissed because every time a woman does something like this it makes it even harder for real victims to be taken seriously.

[DBoon]

14. Strom Thurmond ran in 1948 to oppose Federal Antilynching Laws

a hero of the conservative right, the late Mr. Thurmonds apparently believed lynching was heritage and not hate

</sarcasm>

Can you believe it? A political movement spawned because they wanted lynching to occur without interference from the Federal government? That is the true origin of the Wallace/Nixon/Reagan era of politics.

[JitterbugPerfume]

16. and after his death

it was revealed that he had a black daughter

imagine that

[tblue37]

19. Yep--it wasn't a black man raping a white woman--but a privileged white man

raping a 16-year-old black maid.

[amdezurik]

3. and freeperville drones

would be leading the calls for it...oh wait they already were...

[luvspeas]

4. I am thankful that things have changed (some)

We still have a way to go on many fronts, but I am glad that she's not getting away with it. I do find it horrifying that someone would think this was an OK thing to do, and that the possibility of consequences you mentioned are of little importance.

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. Oh but she probably has some mental problems and we should just leave her alone.

:eyes:

[Dennis Donovan]

6. I'm recommending this... although the bad old days are long gone....

...we must NEVER forget people such as Emmett Till, who was lynched for merely (allegedly) WHISTLING at a white woman in 1955.

The sickness (or evil, depending on her inevitable psych evaluation) of this incident must never be forgotten.:(

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. ...

:-(

[Poll_Blind]

10. My girlfriend and I were discussing this last night and Emmett Till's name came up.

He is very much on our minds at this moment.

PB

[YellowRubberDuckie]

7. Sounds very Rosewood-like.

Have you seen that movie? Oh my God, it was a true story, and it was shocking.
Duckie

[4lbs]

12. Reminds me of a movie I saw recently, "Heaven's Fall" (2006).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425094/

Based on REAL HISTORY.


Successful New York attorney Sam Leibowitz travels to the South in 1933 to defend nine young black men accused of raping two women on an Alabama freight train. In the spring of 1931 nine black hoboes were pulled off an Alabama freight train and arrested for allegedly raping two young white women in a gondola car. Ranging in ages from twelve to twenty years, they were quickly tried and sentenced to the electric chair.

News of their convictions spread and the plight of the Scottsboro Boys became a 'cause celebre' that fueled the fire of socialism worldwide, forcing an appeal to the United States Supreme Court and resulting in new trials for all nine defendants. New Yorker Samuel Leibowitz, a savvy and self-assured defense lawyer with an impressive string of courtroom victories, agreed to represent the accused at their retrials in Decatur, Alabama. His journey into the Deep South symbolized the polarity of the times and set in motion a legal battle that ultimately changed the course of American jurisprudence.

The Scottsboro case was a tragic chapter in American history and a story of epic injustice. From their arrest in 1931 to the release of the last Scottsboro defendant in 1950, the rights of nine young black men were violated. In this century in America, we face many of the same racial prejudices and human rights issues that existed almost seventy-five years ago. The names have changed, but the rhetoric that convicted the Scottsboro Nine remains virtually the same.

Heavens Fall attempts to examine the cultural and political differences that divide us. It is my hope that by looking into the hearts and minds of the Scottsboro participants, black and white, North and South, powerful and impoverished, we may come to a better understanding of each other.

[dgibby]

13. Of course, McCain's repudiated this, right?

Wait for it.....
Crickets....
Oh, I forgot, she's one of the
people he's so PROUD of!


My bad.:mad:

[cliffordu]

15. ...AND IT WOULDN'T BE THE LYING LITTLE BEEEYOTCH WHO FILED THE false

report, now would it????

[SidneyCarton]

17. Yeah, you're right.

The fact that we haven't yet is proof that we have moved on somewhat. If we elect Obama we have really moved on. This woman is either a fool or a bigot. Either way she must learn the consequences of such activity.

[Blue_Tires]

18. you can go much wider; say 1830s-1960s

[DangerDave921]

20. And

we'd all be wearing funny clothes and walking instead of driving. Not sure what your point is. Yes, 100 years ago things were different.