Update on Money, MS

[sammyreynolds1977]

The worst thing in the world to do is read internet comments. I totally agree with JacksonPanther perspective.

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

Originally Posted by sammyreynolds1977

The worst thing in the world to do is read internet comments. I totally agree with JacksonPanther perspective.

It goes to show how dumbed down the art of debate is. Instead of raising valid points, people are more inclined to insult one another. It happens on C-D all the time.

[JacksonPanther]

Originally Posted by Mouldy Old Schmo

I'm basing my "revisionist history" on what was written in the book "A Death in the Delta". The men moved to Texas after having to close their business due to the boycott. Some whites who had supported them began to distance themselves from them after the interview in "Look" Magazine where they confessed. I would like to think the shunning was due to remorse.

We'll never know, but any "shunning" was likely due to those men not keeping their mouths shut and bringing attention to the area. And making them all look bad. I doubt if those people had one iota of remorse.

[An Einnseanair]

Originally Posted by JacksonPanther

I'm not liking your revisionist history on how the two killers were regarded in the white community. They were certainly regarded well enough to be found not guilty after an hour of deliberation. And the woman is still to this day regarded well enough that she's never been brought up on conspiracy charges.

White men being found not guilty of a crime against blacks in that time and place had nothing to do with how well the accused were regarded. It was entirely an "us against them" mentality, where the "them" were often considered as sub-human. Quite a few people at the time felt is was literally impossible for a white person to be guilty of murdering a black person because murder involved killing of an equal. There were plenty of white people still alive who had physically swung a whip at a black slave, and the murderers and jurors alike would have been raised with those stories.

I realize that it's a work of fiction, but read To Kill a Mockingbird for a similar trial.

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

Originally Posted by jwkilgore

There were plenty of white people still alive who had physically swung a whip at a black slave...

They would have had to be over 100 years old, since slavery ended in the mid-1860s and the Till murder trial was in the early 1950s.

[An Einnseanair]

Originally Posted by Mouldy Old Schmo

They would have had to be over 100 years old, since slavery ended in the mid-1860s and the Till murder trial was in the early 1950s.

Looks like I did the math wrong... for some reason I had a 70 years in my mind when I wrote that.

Till's murder trial was September, 1955
Lee surrendered for the "official" Confederate States in April, 1865.
And assuming the youngest whip holder would be at least 10-years old, that puts the age right at 100.

But that's assuming all whipping stopped immediately upon Lee's surrender... I'd be willing to bet it didn't, but I don't have proof. Either way, I agree I was wrong and few (if any) trial spectators held a whip.

The rest of the statement still stands, though. The people chosen for the jury (middle-ages white males) would have been raised on stories of the "good ol' days" when [black folk] "knew their place". The white males on trial could have been the lousiest, most worthless specimens alive, and they would have been found not guilty.