Racial Disadvantages in the Criminal Justice System

            Criminal Justice system is defined as a system the government created to control crime and penalize those who violate the law. Yet there are countless times where history proves to us that it was created to a disadvantage for the African Americans. Instead, it seems more like a way people could gain control, power, and advantages over the African Americans (since they were considered as the minority group). Statistics have shown that even though they only take up about 13% of the entire population in America, 38% are punished and put in jail. 

            From as early as the early establishment of the U.S Constitution 1787, we can see how the law plays a disadvantage role for them. African Americans were once considered as 3/5th of a citizen in the constitution. Through history, we can see that there was a significant difference in the administration of justice when people were reviewing for punishment for crimes committed for both White and African Americans. For example, if an African American commits a crime, they would have to endure many biased juries who will often find reasons to prove them guilty. On the other hand, if a White American commits a heavy crime such as lynching or raping an African America, they were often proven innocent, granting them a free pass.

            Looking back in time, from the 1630-1865s many believed that “black life is cheap”, thinking that they weren’t capable of affording justice, they devalued African Americans by giving little justice to them compared to White Americans. At the time of slavery, history has already shown the marginalization and flawed bias in the criminal justice system. African Americans were seen as inferior to the Whites, and sold into labor to help boost the economy in the south. Slave codes were later established for anyone who tried to escape or fight against this slave life that was forced upon them. From example like these, we can see how the idea of whites being more superior than blacks are heavily weighted into the definition of what the justice system is like and should be. 

            Focusing especially on the slave code, it shows the injustice that the law created. Even though the action of slave trading often mean innocent African Americans being abducted, traded, and sold, very few whites were convicted or executed for their heartless action. Since people believed that death would be too big of a punishment for trading slaves, these white slave traders were considered “innocent”. Even after 1863 where slaves were free through the Emancipation Proclamation, black codes were still passed as laws to punish blacks who would “offend” the whites by testifying against them in voting or in juries. 

            Even recently, we can see the flaws in the criminal justice system through events such as the Trayvon Martin shooting case. An innocent 17 year old African American boy was shot by a watchman because of what supposedly was “self defense”. The boy was unarmed and was killed because the white watchman was overzealous and claimed it to be self defence. The justice department ended up charging this white watchman for civil rights violation, and was sparred all other charges because there was not enough evidence against the white watchman. 

            Examples like these show how the criminal justice system in America often turns a blind eye towards the white, which gives them the power to suppress and often control the African Americans socially. It gives us a glimpse into the injustices and inequality African Americans have been experiencing with this flawed criminal justice system. 

""Slave Codes"." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

http://www.ushistory.org/us/6f.asp

Parent, Anthony S. "Foul Means." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

https://books.google.com/books?id=IMk-ILLmq74C&pg=PA108&lpg=PA108&dq=slave+code+humiliation&source=bl&ots=h3gm0Edf3S&sig=LoOfqFHpi8I8seR5pWm7vkkx9q4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQr_Obg7zTAhWIMSYKHSpMAR4Q6AEIaDAO#v=onepage&q=slave%20code%20humiliation&f=false

The System Isn't Broken, It Was Designed That Way: A Critical Analysis of Historical Racial Disadvantage in the Criminal Justice System I The Hampton Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

http://www.hamptoninstitution.org/systemisntbroken.html#.WPFF1Xc-Jol

"Trayvon Martin Shooting Fast Facts." CNN. Cable News Network, 28 Feb. 2017. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/05/us/trayvon-martin-shooting-fast-facts/

The Criminal Justice System. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

https://victimsofcrime.org/help-for-crime-victims/get-help-bulletins-for-crime-victims/the-criminal-justice-system

Reading Response: Connections to the Past

The readings for Tuesday, 4/25, are making explicit (and sometimes not-so-explicit) connections between our contemporary context, and the history of racism and the movement for black freedom from other eras. Choose one of the texts and show how it invites us to think about that movement as continuous and not isolated, how it invites us to see our current context as connected to and a product of our past. Responses are due by 9:45 am, Tuesday, April 25.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks became a symbol of America Civil Rights when she refused to give up her seat to a white woman. She was born in Tuskegee, Alabama February 4^th, 1913. Growing up she attended segregated schools in Montgomery, Alabama, but dropped out to take care of her grandmother and mother in Pine Level, Alabama. Later, she returned to Montgomery, and started working for voter registration and desegregation. She met her husband Raymond Parks, a barber and an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which then Rosa started to work for as a chapter’s youth leader. She joined the NAACP in 1943.

On Dec 1^st, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, she sparked a national movement. There were segregated buses during this time. The bus driver would draw a line splitting the bus that separated whites and blacks. When more white people started to get on, the bus driver would continue to move the line back, leaving barely any room for black people to sit. Most of them had to stand. When Rosa was riding the bus that day, she was asked to give up her seat. The bus driver demanded that she move further back, and threatened to call the police if she did not move back, but she refused.

She was asked that day by someone, if she was tired. She said she wasn’t tired or old. But what she was tired of giving in. She was arrested for violating city ordinances. She got bailed out of jail and NAACP president rallied black commuters for a city wide bus boycott. African Americans did not ride the bus for months. They carpooled instead, and rode bikes, and evens stayed home from school/work. However, sometimes it wasn’t all nice. Whites would beat up African Americans and arrest people for boycotting.

On Dec. 20^th, 1956, Montgomery’s buses were desegregated by the order of the supreme court. The unity and spirit people maintained over the year of staying off the buses was encouraged by Martin Luther King Jr. at this time.

            After bus boycott Parks and her husband both lost their jobs. They were forced to move to Detroit, Michigan where she worked as a seamstress, secretary, and board member for planned parent hood. In 1992, Rosa published Rosa Parks: My Story, an autobiography recounting her life in the segregated South. In 1995, she published Quiet Strength which includes her memoirs and focuses on the role that religious faith played throughout her life. In 1996, she earned the presidential medal of freedom. In 1999, Time magazine chose Rosa Parks as one of the 20 most influential people in the 20^th century by her simple act of protest. She galvanized a civil rights revolution.  On Oct, 24^th, 2005 she died at the age of 92. In 2013, President Obama unveiled a statue in the capitol building commemorating Parks’ significant history.

 History.com Staff. "Rosa Parks." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 19 Apr.

2017.

"Rosa Parks." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 18 Feb. 2016. Web. 19 Apr. 2017.

"Rosa Parks Biography." Biography Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2017.

Theoharis, Jeanne. "How History Got the Rosa Parks Story Wrong." The Washington Post. WP

Company, 01 Dec. 2015. Web. 19 Apr. 2017.

Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education

Mother talks to daughter after segregation 

is declared unconstitutional in schools

Brown versus Board of Education is a monumental case that helped change the educational system. When looking at this court case, the Plessy v. Ferguson case has to be observed in order to understand the background circumstances that were occurring. In 1892, Homer Plessy refused to give his seat on a train up to a white man. Since he was required by law to do so, he was arrested and eventually he took his case to the Supreme Court. They ruled against him and allowed for Jim Crow laws and discrimination to continue to occur. The 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson allowed for separate but equal public schools and facilities.

In 1950, Oliver Brown attempted to enroll his African American daughter into a white school. His daughter, Linda Brown, and her sister had to walk through a dangerous railroad yard to get the bus to take them to an all black school. The white school was closer to their house but the federal district dismissed Brown’s claim and said that the two schools were equal enough to fit under the Plessy v. Ferguson doctrine. Brown appealed his case to the Supreme Court, and this case along with Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Edward County, Boiling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel became known collectively as Brown v. Board of Education in 1952. All five of the cases were based on the constitutionality of state sponsored segregation in public schools.

Thurgood Marshall, who was the chief counsel of the NAACP, argued in this case that the separate schools were unequal and violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. He stated that black children felt inferior to white children due to segregated schools. There were also studies done that showed that black girls had low racial self esteem. One of these studies, the Doll Test, was used as evidence in the Supreme Court case. The Doll Test tested African American children between 3 years old and 7 years old by showing them four dolls with different races. The children had to identify the races of each and say which one they preferred. Many of the black children chose the white doll and gave it positive traits. Some said the black dolls were bad and said that the white ones looked the most like them. Lawyers argued that this showed the inferiority that the black children felt due to the segregated schools.

One of the dolls used in the Doll Test

Most of the justices on the Supreme Court wanted to reverse Plessy and thought segregation was unconstitutional, but they each had different reasons for this. When there still was not a solution by June 1953, the case was decided to be reheard in December of 1953. In the meantime, Earl Warren replaced Fred Vinson as chief justice after Vinson passed away. Warren was able to bring the justices together to declare segregation in education unconstitutional. They said the fourteenth amendment guarantees equal education for everyone. They also stated that education is the basis of a person’s life and if this right was denied, people were less likely to succeed. The Supreme Court asked the state attorney generals to submit plans for how to get rid of segregation. In the second hearing of the Brown case, or Brown II, in May of 1955, the Supreme Court said desegregation was to proceed with “all deliberate speed”. This did not immediately solve the problems because this statement is vague and hard to enforce. However, the case of Brown v. Board of Education greatly impacted education and the role that segregation played in society.

Works Cited

"Brown v. Board of Education." Uscourts.gov. U.S. Courts, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.

History.com Staff. "Brown v. Board of Education." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.

"Kenneth and Mamie Clark Doll." National Park Service. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.

"Landmark Cases of the U.S. Supreme Court." Brown v. Board of Education | Www.streetlaw.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.

McBride, Alex. "Brown v. Board of Education." PBS. Public Broadcasting Service, Dec. 2006. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.

"NAACP Legal Defense Fund : Defend, Educate, Empower." Brown at 60: The Doll Test | NAACP LDF. Legal Defense and Educational Fund, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.

Reading Response: Recitatif

For Thursday's reading response, you can choose one of the poems or the short story to focus on: "The Enactment"; "Fannie (of Fannie Lou Hamer)"; "Red Velvet," or the short story, "Recitatif." If you choose one of the poems, think about what we discussed in class on Tuesday and find a "foothold," or element to focus on to help you draw out possible meanings in the poem. If you choose to respond to "Recitatif," you might think about the role of memory or about the purpose of the character of Maggie in the story (lots of other possibilities, too, but we will be discussing memory and Maggie in class if you're looking for an angle.)

Responses are due by 9:45, Thursday, April 20.

Emmet Till 

Emmett Louise Till was born on July 25, 1941 in Chicago, Illinois. He was raised in a middle class black neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. His neighborhood was full of black-owned businesses therefore he was used to living in a place where black people could thrive. Emmett was described as being responsible, funny, and an infectiously high-spirited child, and was also known for having a speech impediment. When he was 14 years old his great uncle Moses Wright came from Mississippi to visit Emmett’s family. When his uncle left with Emmett’s cousin Emmett wanted to go with them to spend time with his cousins and begged his mother to allow him to go to Mississippi. Reluctantly his mother agreed and this decision would forever be remembered.

Three days after Emmett had arrived in Mississippi on August 24, 1955 he and a group of teenage boys entered Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market to buy some drinks after being outside all day. The woman working at the cash register, Carolyn Bryant claimed Emmett Till flirted with her by asking for a date and grabbed her hand. She was the wife Roy Bryant who was the owner of the store, and she told her husband about what had happened. Four days after the boys entered the store, at approximately 2:30 am on August 28, 1955 Roy Bryant and his half brother J.W. Milam kidnapped Till from Moses Wright’s house. Then Till was beaten brutally, dragged to the bank of the Tallahatchie River, shot in the head, tied with barbed wire to a large metal fan and his body was shoved into the water. Till’s uncle Moses reported his disappearance to the local authorities and three days later Till’s body was pulled out from the river. His face was so disfigured that he was unrecognizable, and the only way his uncle Moses was able to identify Till was by the ring on his finger that was engraved with his father’s initials “L.T.” After the body was found it was shipped to Chicago. There his mother, Mamie Till decided to have an open-casket funeral and her reasoning was to, “Let the world see what has happened, because there is no way I could describe this. And I needed somebody to help me tell what it was like.”

The kidnapping and murder trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam began on September 19, 1955 and the final verdict was reached on September 23, 1995. Regardless of the tremendous amount of evidence and pleas for justice, the panel of all white male jurors acquitted Bryant and Milam of all charges. The deliberation lasted for 67 minutes. Four months later in January 1956 the two men Bryant and Milam confessed to Look magazine in exchange for $4,000, that they did in fact commit the crime. Because of double jeopardy laws the men were protected and could not be sent to trial again, so they freely told the entire story.

The death of Emmett Till was crucial in triggering the American Civil Rights Movement. Although Mamie Till could never get over the pain of losing her son, she did understand that what had happened to Emmett Till was able to open the eyes of America to the racial hatred that was tormenting the country. Also, by opening their eyes it allowed for a substantial protest movement for racial equality and justice. Only 100 days after the murder of Till, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus. This then caused the yearlong Montgomery Bus Boycott. Nine years after the Boycott, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This Act then outlawed various forms of racial discrimination and segregation. Then one year later in 1965 the Voting Rights Act was passed which outlawed discriminatory voting practices.

The trail of Emmett Till is still not completely over. As of 2007 Carolyn Bryant admitted to lying about what she said Till had said/ done to her while in the market. She confessed to Timothy Tyson who then wrote about it in his book entitled, The Blood of Emmett Till. This does not change the outcome of the trail because the damage has already been done. However, it does exhibit a modern testament to the racist and unfair legal system that has long refused to give African- American people fair treatment and judgment.

Works Cited:

“Emmett Till.” Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 27 Jan. 2017. Web. 15 Apr.   2017.

“The death of Emmett Till.” History.com A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 15 Apr.   2017.

“Emmett Till.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Apr. 2017. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.

“Emmett Till Murder.” Famous Trials. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.

USATODAY. “What’s next for Emmett Till’s accuser after she lied.” YouTube. YouTube, 08 Feb.         2017. Web. 14 Apr. 2017.

Reading Response: James Baldwin and Emmett Till

For Tuesday's reading response, you can choose to focus on the essays or on two of the poems. Think about how the works are in dialogue with one another. How are they responding to a similar idea or using a similar strategy to convey their point? Where do they diverge or rely on contrasting strategies? What do you learn by reading them together? This response is due by class time on Tuesday, April 18.