Voting Rights Act, do NOT rest in peace
Rise back up like a particularly pissed-off vampire.
Four days ago, Representative John Lewis pointed out on Twitter that it was the 49th anniversary of the disappearance of Andrew Goodman, Mickey Schwerner, and James Chaney, lynched for trying to register black people in Philadelphia, Mississippi to vote. I was raised to revere these men. When they disappeared, handed over by the Sheriff to the KKK, the Federal government dragged their feet about investigating for three days, claiming this was a "local matter." The local authorities didn't see why they should get excited over the disappearance of "a n-----, a kike, and a n------lover" (they were mistaken; it was two kikes, thank you very much). Nobody was ever convicted for their murder; 2004, Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter. Their families wanted them buried together, but Mississippi's cemeteries were all segregated, and forbade it.
Forty-nine years. Andrew Goodman was a New Yorker, a student at Queens College, where I am a professor (we have a clock tower dedicated to Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney on campus). He was twenty-one. So was James Chaney, who was taking considerable risks simply by being who he was--a young black man in Mississippi in 1964. Schwerner was all of 25, and had been under surveillance by the KKK for his organizing work. If not for the racist fuckheads of Mississippi they could all still be alive today, to see the VRA gutted.
Fuck these motherfuckers. Reagan kicked off his campaign in 1980 with a speech advocating "states' rights" in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and it was no secret what that meant. He'd be fucking thrilled today.
Four days ago, Representative John Lewis pointed out on Twitter that it was the 49th anniversary of the disappearance of Andrew Goodman, Mickey Schwerner, and James Chaney, lynched for trying to register black people in Philadelphia, Mississippi to vote. I was raised to revere these men. When they disappeared, handed over by the Sheriff to the KKK, the Federal government dragged their feet about investigating for three days, claiming this was a "local matter." The local authorities didn't see why they should get excited over the disappearance of "a n-----, a kike, and a n------lover" (they were mistaken; it was two kikes, thank you very much). Nobody was ever convicted for their murder; 2004, Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter. Their families wanted them buried together, but Mississippi's cemeteries were all segregated, and forbade it.
Forty-nine years. Andrew Goodman was a New Yorker, a student at Queens College, where I am a professor (we have a clock tower dedicated to Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney on campus). He was twenty-one. So was James Chaney, who was taking considerable risks simply by being who he was--a young black man in Mississippi in 1964. Schwerner was all of 25, and had been under surveillance by the KKK for his organizing work. If not for the racist fuckheads of Mississippi they could all still be alive today, to see the VRA gutted.
Fuck these motherfuckers. Reagan kicked off his campaign in 1980 with a speech advocating "states' rights" in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and it was no secret what that meant. He'd be fucking thrilled today.