Why 60 Minutes aired photos of lynchings in report by Oprah

CBS 60 Minutes ^ | 4/08/2018 | Brit Farmer

[MacNaughton]

Wes Johnson was about 18 years old when he was murdered in a cotton field in southern Alabama. It was 1937, and according to newspaper reports at the time, a mob of men had dragged him from his jail cell before he could stand trial for the charge against him: assaulting a white woman. Today, only one photograph is known to exist of Johnson, a single picture to preserve his image for posterity—his lifeless body hanging from a tree.

Bryan Stevenson wants to honor the legacy of Johnson, and thousands like him, with a new memorial for victims of lynching in America. Stevenson is a lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization that investigates the lynchings of African Americans. To commemorate the victims whose cases they've examined, the organization recently bought six acres of land in Montgomery, Alabama and constructed a memorial.

[MacNaughton]

Watched this last night.

lynching

... lynching attacks on U.S. blacks, especially in the South, increased dramatically in the aftermath of Reconstruction, after slavery had been abolished and freedmen gained the right to vote. The peak of lynchings occurred in 1892, after southern white Democrats had regained control of state legislatures. Many incidents were related to economic troubles and competition. At the turn of the 20th century, southern states passed new constitutions or legislation which effectively disenfranchised most blacks and many poor whites, established segregation of public facilities by race, and separated blacks from common public life and facilities through Jim Crow rules. Nearly 3,500 African Americans and 1,300 whites were lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968.[20] "Lynchings: By State and Race, 1882–1968". University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Archived from the original on June 29, 2010. Retrieved July 26, 2010. Statistics provided by the Archives at Tuskegee Institute.

National Memorial to Peace and Justice

[left that other site]

Well if the Jihadists can hold a “9/11” grudge from the Gates of Vienna incident 400 years ago, I guess the leftists can hold a grudge against peak lynchings that happened in the 19th Century.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Too bad about the lynchings, but I had nothing to do with them.

[kaehurowing]

Someone should tell them lynchings were a tool of the Democrat Party to keep control in the South. They might also mention the number of Republicans who were lynched.

[realcleanguy]

I know that the Democrats are ashamed of their actions back then. But I find it amazing that the Democrats try to blame the Republicans for what Democrats did years ago. Its disturbing and irresponsible for Democrats to try and shift the blame to a group that would have no part in the actions of the Democrats

[wardaddy]

What’s your point?

[Cold Heart]

Neither did I, I am not a democrat.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

The peak of lynchings occurred in 1892, after southern white Democrats had regained control of state legislatures.

The Democrats have a lot to answer for.

[Jan_Sobieski]

Well if the Jihadists can hold a "9/11" grudge from the Gates of Vienna incident 400 years ago, I guess the leftists can hold a grudge against peak lynchings that happened in the 19th Century.

It was the leftists who committed the lynchings!!

[Sooth2222]

According to the NAACP: From 1882-1968, 4,743 lynchings occurred in the United States. Of these people that were lynched 3,446 were black. The blacks lynched accounted for 72.7% of the people lynched. These numbers seem large, but it is known that not all of the lynchings were ever recorded. Out of the 4,743 people lynched only 1,297 white people were lynched. That is only 27.3%. Many of the whites lynched were lynched for helping the black or being anti lynching and even for domestic crimes.

Over 86 years, 4,743 - 1297 = 3446 nonwhite people were lynched, or 40 per year.

Deplorable it certainly is, but so far in 2018, there have been 123 homicides in just one US city, Chicago, the majority involving nonwhite people both victim and murderer.

[MHGinTN]

60 minutes wants to enflame race hatred. A nation in the throes of civil war not waged upon the bastards in the federal legislature is the only way democraps can hope to herd enough fools to the voting booths now. Next question.

[MHGinTN]

Democrats? Gte it right. It is the democrat sycophantic media. Guillotines from orbit is the only way ...

[yarddog]

For Assaulting and Murdering Bessie Mae Morrison Friday Morning near Dady Post office in this County.

Last Friday morning little miss Bessie Mae Morrison, the 13 year old daughter of Mrs. Gus Morrison, a widow residing near Dady in the extreme north western part of this county, was assaulted by three Negro brutes while on her way to school, and after accomplishing their fiendish purpose the black imps clubbed their innocent little victim to death and concealed the body in a near-by pond by piling heave wood upon it.

The failure of the little girl to return home at the usual hour in the afternoon caused the mother to feel uneasy and after waiting a reasonable time a search was instituted. The news spread rapidly over the settlement that the little girl was missing and all of Friday night the search was pressed with vigor. A slight track of a struggle by the road leading to the school house was found and this led to the arrest of a Negro who had been dipping turpentine in that vicinity during the day. The Negro was hand in custody and the search of the missing girl was continued until Saturday morning about 7 o’clock when the body was discovered in a pond where it had been weighted down by heavy wood, only an arm protruding above the surface of the water.

The body was removed and immediately taken to the home of the mother, and it was at this time that the searching party turned into a mob of infuriated men who were bent on finding the perpetrators of one of the most heinous and brutal crimes ever committed in Holmes county.

The mob closely questioned the first Negro arrested and he implicated another Negro named “Bunk” who was immediately found and arrested, and “persuaded” to tell what he knew of the crime he acknowledged to it and connected the first Negro arrested with it and also implicated a third. He was soon located and brought face to face the three confessed to the awful crime.

The mob, thinking officers might rush in a attempt to block their intention, decided to end the lives of three worthless imps in the quickest and surest way, and the trio of black demons were lined up and their bodies perforated by bullets from a least five hundred guns.

News of the trouble did not reach Bonifay until late Saturday afternoon and Sheriff Hickman immediately left for the scene. Reaching Westville he was informed by telephone that the trouble had subsided and everything was quiet and peaceable again, and the Sheriff returned to Bonifay on the last rain Saturday night.

Since the lynching of the three Negroes Saturday various rumors have been afloat to the effect that another Negro, who had knowledge of the crime, had been captured and dealt with in the same manner as the first three but this report is incorrect although a fourth Negro was arrested but he satisfied the crowd that he was in no way connected with the crime or had any knowledge of it and he was allowed to go. No further trouble is expected as the mob has dispersed and the citizens have returned to their work, but it is said that “coons” are few and far between in that community just now.

[wardaddy]

Same old crap....piss on the South...a free republic circle jerk

Newsflash

Folks were lynched everywhere in every state

Guilty were lynched

Whites were lynched

And all this garbage about disenfranchisement

You live in a county in Mississippi that’s 80% black in 1866 and you can’t vote cause you fought for the South and now blacks are running things with their new masters the radical Republicans putting illiterate puppets in office

What would you have done....just roll over or move to California ...a lot did who could or would you fight back against the occupation

Freepers like things simple so they can shout platitudes and virtue signal free of charge

History is ugly and anything but simple.

But don’t let that stop y’all...lynching is bad...and so are Nazis....gotta get them in there

dead lynched white guys just for the record....

[yarddog]

One correction, Bessie Morrison was 12 not 13.

She was my Grandmother’s first cousin and best friend. The only memorial to her is a gravestone in Leonia Baptist Church cemetery.

[wardaddy]

Since you appear to think democrats from forever are the perjorative what’s your view on the radical republicans of reconstruction

I keep up with this and don’t recognize your nick

Why do you think all lynching were political

They weren’t

Lynchings were in every state and territory

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Bryan Stevenson wants to honor the legacy of Johnson

Well, was Wes Johnson guilty of the assault? If so, why would Bryan Stevenson wish to honor his 'legacy'? And what legacy would that be?

[yarddog]

The article was taken from the August 10, 1910 edition of the Holmes County Advertiser.

I might also mention that one of the participants in the “lynching” was a well liked Black man named Tip Broxson.

[AlaskaErik]

Is this the same Oprah that says older people have to die, the inference being that it’s really older white people that have to die?

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

I saw that last night. Of course Oafrah conveniently left out that these lynchings were done exclusively by democraps who she obsessively supports every election cycle and instead blamed the lynchings it on “white supremacy”