Don’t get me wrong, it was beautifully written, but I couldn’t help but dislike yesterday’s front-page centerpiece story.
If you missed it, we recalled the details of the only recorded lynching in Athens County — the 1881 murder of Christopher Davis, an Albany man who was accused of raping a white woman. A mob of local residents broke into the jail where Davis was being held, snatched him, coerced a confession and then hung him.
Unfortunately, Davis’ story isn’t unique. While he is the only person that historical records list as being lynched in this region of Southeast Ohio, there is little doubt that other black men faced a similar fate. As Ohio University students, we can’t overlook the important role that this area played during the Civil War and years that followed.
It’s an unfortunate truth that we so often only revisit this inconvenient history during February, when the calendar tells us that it’s Black History Month.
Even with the increased awareness of the injustices dealt to minority groups, we’ve still yet to learn from the generations that came before us. Few, if any of us, truly grasp the crimes committed by our ancestors and by our government, even after the abolition of slavery. Some politicians still make statements arguing that Black History Month puts an unfair emphasis on racial minorities. And tons of young people, in what they see as a “cool” rebellion against political correctness, withdraw at any discussion of race. Meanwhile the “White History Month” group on Facebook has earned nearly 7,500 “likes.”
Disgusting, yet to be expected given the widespread ignorance of just how bad things once were in this country.
More than 800,000 black Americans remained enslaved in states such as Alabama and Georgia well after the 13th Amendment.
In fact, it wasn’t until 1941 — more than 80 years after the Emancipation Proclamation — that the federal government finally began enforcing the laws that made slavery illegal.
And it’s not just blacks who’ve been handed injustice.
Take a look at the Japanese internment camps during World War II. Or how about the genocide of Native Americans, who are now relegated to the nation’s poorest regions with little access to jobs, education or health care. And then there are the current “self deportation” policies being advocated in Alabama and Arizona, where public officials want to make life so difficult for Hispanics that they just get up and leave.
The America we so arrogantly boast about hasn’t been so great for much of its population throughout history. Those who argue we shouldn’t give special attention to the darker sections of our nation’s history are only working to ensure we continue to advance the ignorance permitted enslaving, murdering and discriminating against racial minorities in decades past.
Wesley Lowery is a senior studying journalism and editor-in-chief of The Post.
Email him at wl372808@ohiou.edu.
