Break It Down!: Mississippi: SOSDD!

It's time to Break It Down!

(Disclaimer: This post contains language that is graphic in nature, and which may be considered offensive and/or inappropriate for minors; reader discretion is advised).

Have you ever been to Mississippi? Some of my closest friends, fraternity brothers, and colleagues hail from the Magnolia State. While the State has held the distinction of “Poorest in the nation” since roughly the onset of the 20^th Century, Mississippi was the 5^th wealthiest State before the Civil War…back when Cotton was King and great Plantations dotted the picturesque landscape. When one considers that fact alone, it is not difficult to understand why many of the State’s residents may hold the past so dearly. For additional context, Mississippi was also:

The 20^th State admitted to the Union

The 2^nd State to secede from the Union

A founding member of the Confederate States of America

Home to 436,631 slaves (55% of the population of 791,305) in 1860

Home to fewer than 1,000 free people of color in 1860

My own Mississippi anecdote is framed by an encounter with a young hate-filled white man who decided at the point of our paths crossing, his sole purpose in life was to intimidate (and perhaps harm) me. We met, or at least came into view of one another in a Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi in the spring of 1994.

The CliffNotes version of the story is he stalked me in and around the Casino for the couple of hours I was there. At every opportunity he tried to give me the “Evil Eye.” Since I was the only non-gambler traveling with a group of high rollers, I vacillated between watching my associates and surveying the facilities. It was apparently unclear to this gentleman that I was accompanied by a party of about a dozen (traveling in 3 vehicles) persons. After advising my colleagues of the situation, we made one final round through the place before leaving, and not surprisingly ran into to this young man. As he saw me, and what likely appeared to him to be an imposing group of black folks headed toward him, I gave him the Evil Eye, and he quickly found his way to an exit before we approached him. My point made effectively; turnabout is fair play!

But I digress. On August 28, 1955, Chicagoan, Emmet Till met his demise in the Mississippi Delta at the hands of several Mississippians who took great exception to his interaction with a white woman at a Grocery Store and Meat Market. Till’s murder is considered one of the galvanizing events of the Civil Rights Movement. David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, called the ensuing trial "The first great media event of the Civil Rights Movement."

At that time vigilante murder of black men by whites was not uncommon. Between 1882 and the mid-50’s, statistics show more than 500 black men were lynched in Mississippi alone. Though the trend had been declining by the 1930’s, a spike was traced to the 1954 Brownv. Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court. Segregationists held the view that the decision was a gateway to interracial marriage, which they held as the highest of taboos.

The perpetrators of Emmet Till’s murder were acquitted based upon what at the time passed for classic Mississippi Justice. Two “suspects” admitted they took Till from the home where he was staying, but denied killing him; insisting they returned him later. After their acquittal, they could not be tried for the offense again to a provision prohibiting double-jeopardy. In a subsequent trial for kidnapping, the two defendants were acquitted…even though they admitted taking the young man. After the trials, the pair was heard admitting they killed Till. In short, in the 1950’s, crimes upon blacks committed by whites seldom resulted in a conviction.

So now, fast forward nearly 56 years to June 26, 2011. James Craig Anderson, 49, was beaten by white teens in Jackson, Mississippi, and later run over and killed by one of them; 18 year-old, Deryl Dedmon, Jr. The virulent spirit of racism is alive and well in the Great State of Mississippi.

The teens from nearby Brandon, had partied through the evening, and purportedly decided to amp-up the evening’s excitement quotient. According to law enforcement officials, Dedmon told friends they should leave the party spot, saying, “Let’s go fuck with some niggers.”

At this point, the teens got into two vehicles and drove 16 miles to a predominately black section of Jackson. They pulled off the Interstate into the parking lot of the first business in town. There they encountered Anderson, whom none of them knew, and proceeded to beat him...repeatedly. Afterwards, one vehicle left the scene. As Deryl left, in the second vehicle, he ran over Anderson, killing him instantly.

According to testimony given by some of the teens to police detectives, Dedmon said to them in a cell phone conversation, “I ran that nigger over.” Dedmon allegedly repeated this racially tinged commentary in subsequent conversations.

In a not so positive way, this sequence of events shaped up in ways historically reminiscent of Emmett Till’s murder. A group of whites felt fully liberated to exercise the full measure of their power against a black man, taking his very life. At first glance, the similarity offers the sort of chilling retrospective that leads one to conclude, Mississippi: SOSDD (Same Old Story Different Day)! ;-)

Alas, there is one fundamentally huge difference, aside from the more than half a century that has elapsed. You see, unbeknownst to Dedmon and his co-conspirators, their actions, were caught on tape by the establishment’s security video. I am certainly not going out on a limb and predicting any murder convictions; after all, jurisprudence is rife with improbable and unforeseeable outcomes. What is clear, however, is that wherein Emmett Till’s mother, and thousands like her, never had a fighting chance of seeing justice for the loss of their loved ones, before shuffling off this mortal coil, the marvel of electronic technology, in conjunction with sheer providence, ensures that Mr. Anderson’s family will have at least that possibility…even in Mississippi.

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. A new post is published each Wednesday. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the links below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi

http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/Mississippi/NicknameMississippi.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon,_Mississippi

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/mississippi-hate-crime-caught-video

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/09/national/main20090093.shtml

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/06/mississippi.hate.crime/index.html

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2011/08/09/alleged-killer-in-mississippi-hate-crime-was-good-boy-says-uncle/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/mississippi-teen-deryl-dedmon-hate-crime-video_n_922357.html

http://www.atoast2wealth.com/2011/08/09/mississippi-man-victim-of-randon-hate-crime-by-white-teens-caught-on-videotape/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0ZXbpTNb6A

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012131/Teens-accused-race-hate-murder-went-looking-victim-James-Craig-Anderson.html

http://www.brandonsun.com/world/breaking-news/125107824.html?thx=y