Post WW II Lynchings

1947 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People' annual report calls 1946 "one of the grimmest years in the history of the NAACP." The report details violence and atrocities heaped on "Negro veterans freshly returned from a war to end torture and racial extermination," and said "Negroes in America have been disillusioned over the wave of lynchings, brutality and official recession from all of the flamboyant promises of post war democracy and decency."

The MUNIRAH CHRONICLE each day reports historic events affecting African Americans. This is from its 1/3/2010 report.

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When I was a child lynchings were common. They were not punished and legal authorities in some Southern states even boasted of their participation in them.

I am now an 'elder'. Imagine how African Americans my age feel as they recall these horrors. I mention this background because it is fairly obvious that echoes of it still exist -- the silent racism of so many and the treatment of African American men throughout our country by our police.

Things have improved, but 'tribal' prejudices and abuses continue long after they are officially outlawed. This is, of course, not just true of the U.S. But it is a battle still to be fought here.

And we are now at risk of identifying Muslims generally as "terrorists" because of the madness of a few.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]