The lead headline of the Everett Daily Herald’s inaugural edition, dated Feb. 11, 1901, carries a chillingly matter-of-fact tone:
“Negro lynched for the usual crime.”
The article describes how a mob of 30 men stormed a Kentucky jail in the middle of the night and took George Carter, who was being held for allegedly assaulting a white woman, to be immediately hanged. Carter fell victim to a form of racist-inspired murder that was all too common in the South. Lynchings claimed the lives of thousands – many of whom had never even been blamed for a crime.
Just over a century later, the U.S. Senate last week apologized for its own inaction against these hate crimes – latency that contributed to terror for much of the 20th century. In the first half of the century, the Senate killed more than 200 bills that sought to make lynching a federal crime.
Today’s belated apology is symbolic, but it holds value for the future. To move forward as a society, we often need to look back. Facing up to the worst of our nation’s history can keep us from repeating it. Such actions also allow some peace for families of victims.
“The apology to the American people is a start to the healing process – the healing process for the county and also for descendents of lynching crimes,” said J.J. Frank, an African-American who lives in Stanwood and works as the teen program director at the Marysville YMCA.
While hate crimes are less frequent now, Frank noted that our nation still has a lot of work to do. Only by “speaking frankly” on the contentious issue of race, he said, can we forge ahead together.
Unfortunately, the Senate’s apology highlighted the absence of frank speech on the issue. The resolution, which was co-sponsored by just 78 of 100 senators, was approved on a voice vote, protecting the identity of those who chose to abstain.
Still, the formal apology makes a long overdue reparation to the individuals, families and communities who have been affected by a history of hate. And it speaks well of one nation’s hope for its future.
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