In 1892, Ida B. Wells wrote her first article denouncing the lynching of three businessmen in Memphis, TN. In her subsequent articles, she exposed how false accusations of raping white women, were used to avoid and hide the economic motivation behind the killings. The men were prosperous Black business owners who white business owners saw as a threat: killing them was a way to increase white wealth and undermine competition. She also organized a boycott and fled Memphis after her articles were written and people broke into her office.
In 1898, she brought the antilynching campaign to the WhiteHouse demanding a federal law that made lynching a federal crime. That makes today’s passage of the Emmett Hill antilynching bill a success after 130 years of movement-building. This is also the cause that brought together the founders of the NAACP in 1909 and was the core of their activism until the Garland Fund, their funder, succeeded at swaying their campaign towards education in 1930.
It makes me reflect deeply on the challenges and the strengths of the marathon–the long haul work.
The Challenges. After a struggle of 130 years, some journalists seem to think the law is symbolic–as many of The not front-page articles highlighted. It is not. The law is still needed.
The Southern Poverty Law Center is monitoring 733 hate groups in its map. While we often think of lynching for its historical most intense moment over retaliation for the end of slavery and Reconstruction hate crimes are very much alive, as Ahmaud Arbery‘s death shows. Yet long struggles often morph overtime, giving up the impression of things being lighter and better, even when much is painful and problematic.
The Strengths. Emergency, sprinting activism and advocacy can only go so far, we must invest in the long haul too. Investing in the long haul helps us think of our contribution beyond our own lives, beyond ourselves–it has the power to leverage group action in a stronger way, because it carries a deeper commitment than a political career. What is it that I want my life to offer the next generations? What’s the legacy I want to leave behind? Our political discourse is consumed by election cycles–there is so much more humans have to offer our pained world than 4-8 year cycles.
Today, someone challenged me to lead not from the needs and desires of the selected few who are part of a collective now, but from the perspective of 500 people joining in the next 50 years.
An interesting perspective how does the timeframe we have in mind change our actions? Our thoughts? Our intentions?