Lynching photos arrive in ATL


S

Sonic98

Guest
OTHER NEWS: LYNCHING PHOTOS ARRIVE IN ATLANTA
Controversial exhibit at King historic site

*"Without Sanctuary" is an exhibit which features graphic
photos of lynching victims taken from a collection owned by
white antiques dealer James Allen.
The exhibit debuted in New York over two years ago.
Last Wednesday, it premiered in Atlanta - the first viewing
of the exhibit in the South.
Several ceremonies and events took place to coincide
with the exhibit's opening. A memorial service for the more
than 5,000 victims of lynchings was held at Ebenezer Baptist
Church. A dance troupe performed an African mourning dance
on the King Plaza. Those who attended the opening ceremony
included Coretta Scott King, NAACP chairman Julian Bond's
mother, Julia Bond, and a granddaughter of Booker T.
Washington, Margaret Washington Clifford.
The photos have reportedly moved many people to tears.
The exhibition is at the Martin Luther King Jr. National
Historic Site through the end of the year.
 
Sad

I could not look at the whole show, it made me so mad I started to cry... I had to leave.
 

Click here to visit HBCUSportsShop
Well I have no problem with the showing, but I can understand someone having trouble looking at it. I have no problem with it because sometimes we have to see the bad parts of history to see where we don't need to be. Sometimes we have to see things like Lynching pictures, Kent State pictures, Emitt Teale, and Holocaust photos.
 
I hope the show comes here. I would like to see what we as a people had to deal with. I think it is good we can look back on things and remember. This should get Black folks to thinking about how we should treat each other and stop the Black on Black crime and focus on the strength, courage and wisdom of our people.
 
Its good to see the exhibit has finally been accepted in Atlanta. The owner of the exhibit tried unsuccessfully for several years to get the pictures shown there.

The only state that had more lynchings than Georgia was Texas.
 
Interesting.

Georgia? Texas?

You mean to tell me Georgia and Texas had more lynchings than Alabama and Mississippi?

Gee, I would not have figured. Let black folk and main stream media tell it, every lynching of blacks in a racial attack ever perpetrated took place mostly in Alabama and Mississippi. :rolleyes:

Interesting how these states, Georgia and Texas, have infinitely better images as far as black folk are concerned, than Alabama and Mississippi if what you say is, in fact, true. Interesting that Georgia did not catch as much national media flack over the confederate flag issue(i'm still seeing the confederate version of the Georgia flag by the way) as Mississippi and even as much as states like Alabama and South Carolina for flying the confederate battle flag over their capitols. :rolleyes:

Texas is brewtal when it comes to anybody, not just blacks, (i've got the book where the lynching photos came from. there were many whites lynched that you don't hear the stories about, especially in the west/west of the Mississippi river) but Texas never had to deal with a bad race relations image in the national/international media like Alabama and Mississippi.
 
B, it really does not suprise me that Georgia and Texas might have led the nation in lynchings. The klan was probably the strongest or had the highest numbers in Georgia during the reconstruction period. Being a sixth generation Georgian, I have heard a story or two about certain towns. BTW Georgia did catch flak for the flag. But the legislature pass the measure to change the flag, and it was signed by Roy Barnes. But consider this. All images of past Georgia flags are on the new one.

In Texas when the conservatives took over the legislature, they strip the governor of a lot of powers. The situation still exists until this day.

I wonder what does the exhibit say about places like Indiana. During the 1920s the klan was stronger there than anywhere.

Let me add this. Lyndon Johnson, who signed the civil rights' legislation, was from Texas. A fairly (I guess one can say this.) progressive senator, Ralph Yarbarough, represented Texas.

In Georgia Carl Sanders was governor of Georgia when Wallace was governor of Alabama. Sanders did not want what happened in Miss. and Ala. and the images that came with it to happen in Georgia. But let's be real, after Sanders and before Jimmy Carter, there was Lester Maddox. Yet, despite the fact that I think he is still a hateful bigot (I have heard his more recent rhetoric.), he actually did some (NOTICE THAT I SAID SOME!) good. Yes, it is hard for me to say it.

So from an image standpoint, things in the late '60s help Georgia's image despite it is a very conservative state.
 
EB, Yep.

Yes, Georgia did catch some flack for the flag, but I think, with our image, Alabama would have caught much more flack than Georgia because Georgia doesn't have the bad image problem like Alabama and Mississippi.

This does, as you pointed out, stem from politicians in Georgia (mainly in association with Atlanta's quest to become a world class city, which it has done masterfully I might add) being infinitely better public relations managers than their counterparts in Alabama and Mississippi during the most critical days of the civil rights movement. Georgia was very smart and helped out immensely by hardline imbeciles in Alabama like Eugene "Bull" Connor, George Wallace, Mayor Smitherman in Selma, the list goes on and on.

Georgia actually had leaders to rival the "best"(i.e., worst in Alabama). You already mentioned Maddox, the Wallace equivalent. The police chief in Albany, Georgia handed MLK/SCLC etc. one of their few public relations losses during the time. He understood that the movement needed ugly confrontation and media exposure like it was easily getting in Alabama and Mississippi. He studied the results of clashes in Birmingham and avoided the ugly photo opts whilest jailing all the waves of black protesters (many children) in the jails of surrounding counties and avoiding dogs, hoses and brewtal clashes as much as possible. King left there without bringing the system to its knees like he did in Birmingham, Montgomery, Anniston and Selma.

Along with leadership, I think the main things that kept Georgia and Texas from suffering the image problems of Alabama and Mississippi were the emergence of fast growing, progressive metro areas like Atlanta, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio. Politics in those places were generally focused on what they needed to do to become world-class metro areas with such big city amenities as pro sports, hub airports, headquarters for major fortune 500 companies, social/cultural advancement, population growth and job creation. That was not the politics of Birmingham, Montgomery or Selma and Alabama has paid dearly and is paying to this day. :bawling:
 
I agree Sonic98

At my old job, the people in my office were 99.9% african americans. My screensaver consisted of african american historical figures which included pics of brutal lynchings. Several would question it and thought it was cruel. I simply let them know that what they were seeing were their history; nothing fiction about it. It should remind you of what you need to do today! I have to visit Atl sometime this year to see the memorial.
 
I will be making the trip this summer

I saw the story on CNN and I will be traveling to Atlanta this summer for a viewing. I really don?t care about which two states were the top two states that had the most lynchings. People where mistreated in every state. The fact that an injustice occurred makes the top two rankings a mute point. I cried when I thought about the masses seeing nothing wrong with lynching black people. Also, I was appalled that society went so far as to make post cards out of the lynchings that took place.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top