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What are the lives of a few negroes in comparison with the preservation of the impetuous instincts of a proud and fiery race? Mark Twain said it best in his short essay, Only a Negro. Southerners would come from hundreds of miles to see an African American be lynched by a racist crowd. African Americans were not given a fair trial; they werent given a trial at all. They were taken against their will and locked up until they were to be lynched.
They were not just killed, but killed inhumanly for crimes not proven they committed. But isnt this murder? Technically, yes, but it was murder in racist towns of the South. Lynching of anybody is wrong and should have been stopped a long time ago. In July of 1776, our forefathers sat down and wrote out the Declaration of Independence.
This document stated that every man was created equal. It also stated that we shall not be deprived, in many cases, of the benefits of a trial by jury. But no, the black man was no equal; he was treated as an inferior to the white man. And no, he was not given the same free rights of the white race. Racism and bigotry has always been around in the South where the black man was. Didnt we fight a Civil War over slavery and racism in the South?
Do we have to fight another until it is stopped? The government did try to stop lynching by passing anti-lynching laws but failed. These laws would pass the House of Representatives, only to be defeated in the Senate. I wonder why? It couldnt be because of racist white officials, now could it? State and local governments did very little to curtail this vigilante violence; various laws against mob violence were seldom enforced.
And why? Because whites were in power and African Americans could do nothing about it. The more a person knows the more educated they will be and this was what racist whites were afraid of -- that the African American would someday be smarter and have more power then them. Even today, similar practices are classified as bias crimes. For over a hundred years men and women have been lynched for false reasons. Although lynchings have diminished in recent decades, there still are hate crimes that relate closely to lynching.
Only a relative few people have ever been punished for these crimes. After years of war and hatred, have we moved into a more sophisticated future where all men, women and children are created equal? I sure hope so. And for those who have lynched a man because of his color, race, or views, God have mercy on their souls.
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Research essay sample on African Americans Created Equal
