“I honestly cannot recall one time as a student, from kindergarten through high school, where we discussed white mob racial terror in America at ANY length.”
A day before an angry white mob of insurrectionists laid siege to the U.S. Capitol, "Rosewood" was one of the trending topics on my Twitter's "For You" page. I did not feel compelled to click on the hashtag because I wanted to avoid what Rosewood represents.
A week removed from the latest episode in America's coddling of unbridled whiteness, the parallels between my opting out of the Rosewood hashtag and America's penchant for opting out of its history of racial terror were jarring. America's deliberate reluctance to engage with its ghastly past and its complicitous behavior in solidarity with white mob violence have enduring consequences. Last Wednesday's attempted coup was simply the latest evidence of what endures when a country intentionally ignores its ugliest origins.
#NeverForget is a ubiquitous hashtag inextricably linked with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The hashtag reminds us of the tragic events of that fateful day. It is a call to action for every American, regardless of age, race, religion, or creed, to honor the nearly 3,000 lives lost due to the evil deeds of a foreign enemy. So, with what we witnessed last week at our nation's Capitol - a full blown, coordinated insurrection and attack on our democracy - we should safely assume this act of domestic terrorism will be commemorated via remembrance hashtags, call to actions, and comprehensive, detailed accounts in American history textbooks. Future generations of Americans must #NeverForget January 6, 2021.
Thankfully, through the advent of social media, the appalling and atrocious acts of angry white American mobs can no longer live in the skeleton-filled closets of this country's past, left to be unearthed by its youth. Here is where I need to revisit the Rosewood hashtag. The events that took place 98 years ago in the small rural community of Rosewood, Florida, were widely deemed unworthy of a mention or even a footnote by the editors of the U.S. history textbooks I read as a student; however, Wednesday's insurrection by a white mob won't magically vanish from our history books this time around. This can be attributed mainly to the culprits and assailants themselves for recording their crimes in real-time via their social media feeds for the rest of the world to see.
White mobs of the early 20th century would proudly pose for pictures, unmasked might I add, with the bodies of lynched Black folk still swaying from trees. White mobs took home "artifacts," or souvenirs as they would call it, from charred Black bodies such as genitalia, ears, tongues, livers, hearts, and other body parts. Some returned home with burned flesh to add to their living room walls as some sadistic display of their depraved exploits. White mobs were allowed to enter municipal buildings where Black folk were jailed. With law enforcement's aid, white folk forcibly removed any Black civilian of their choosing for the evening's picnic, which featured American classics like deviled eggs, lemonade, and whiskey. And the main course for the night: the public brutalization and torture of Black bodies.
From Heartland: Marion, Indiana, August 7, 1930
Three African American teenagers—Tom Shipp, Abe Smith, and James Cameron—huddled inside their cells, charged with the murder of a white man and the rape of white woman. A violent mob would pull them out the jail, and after brutally beating them nearly to death, dragged them to a tree at the courthouse square. Cameron would be spared due to his age, but Shipp and Smith would die here, as the angry white mob posed for a picture taken by the local photographer.
On Wednesday, January 6th, another white mob forced its way into a federal building, aided by some Capitol police, to forcibly remove public servants and participate in an American pastime - public lynchings. Except for this time, their intended victims weren't the unprotected Black folk of America's Deep South from the dark, dastardly epoch in history Trump supporters would claim to be "great." Still, the parallels between January 6th’s angry white mob and the calling cards of American lynch mobs are too damning and disgusting to ignore. Wednesday's white mob took photos of themselves unmasked, carrying home artifacts from their attack on the nation's Capitol. They erected a noose and a lynching post outside for the world to see firsthand. The mob chanted their intentions - "Hang Mike Pence” - while storming the Capitol in search of the Vice President and the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. And in the grand tradition of white American mob violence, virtually everyone in the mob was allowed to return to their respective homes, the blood of treason still fresh on their clothes, without an inkling of fear they would be held accountable.
I didn't learn about the Rosewood race massacre of 1923 until an adaptive film of the same name was released in 1997. Directed by the timeless John Singleton (rest in power), the film starred Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, and Jon Voight, who coincidentally depicted one of the fictional "good white folk" in the movie, despite being a rabid, present-day Trump supporter. I honestly cannot recall one time as a student, from kindergarten through high school, where we discussed white mob racial terror in America at ANY length. It was as if I was intentionally told to #Forget THIS part of history. But remember, #NeverForget 9/11. Why does white domestic terrorism get overlooked and ultimately forgotten, just for the country to be jolted again and again into a state of continuous shock by the next installment of unchecked white rage?
An angry mob led by the town sheriff (Michael Rooker, center) in a scene from "Rosewood," a Warner Brothers movie released in 1997. (Warner Brothers)
I learned about enslaved African rebellions in school, although limited in scope and context, both here and in the neighboring Caribbean. I heard about Toussaint L’ouverture and the Haitian Revolution. I was introduced to the name Denmark Vesey. I learned about Nat Turner's rebellion and how he instructed his freedom fighters to kill even women and children of the slaveholding class in Southampton County, VA.; however, I never learned once from a U.S. textbook about any of the countless Black women and children slaughtered at the hands of white mobs, harmless Black babies with bullets in their heads usually because ONE white woman would lie about being assaulted by ONE imaginary Black man - see Rosewood, see Black Black Wall Street, see Emmett Till (You can learn more about this sordid history by visiting the Equal Justice Initiative). Over 30 innocent Black lives were lost, including women and children, on January 5, 1923. A white mob amassing 200 people burned the peaceful Black community of Rosewood, Florida to the ground, causing its surviving residents to flee their homes, never to return. And all of this happened due to a white woman's lie, a lie Black Americans know all too well because it almost certainly serves as a death knell when wielded.
The lie of American exceptionalism is just as pernicious and deadly as the lies leading to these acts of racial terror. But as long as the lie is allowed to fester and infect the minds of our citizenry, especially our youth, we should refrain from sentiments of shock and repulsion at the actions of white mob terror in America. Until we unite to #NeverForget Rosewood with the same patriotic poignancy we hold for events like 9/11, we cannot continue masquerading around the globe as some beacon of peace and prosperity for all who care to join us. January 6, 2021, was the progeny of America's repeated attempts to disentangle itself from its inescapable history with white mob terror. Suppose President-Elect Biden and his administration want to heal Trump's America from the soiled divisiveness sown these last four years. In that case, he and the rest of this nation's elected leaders must first openly admit and acknowledge this country has been sick, way before red MAGA hats were worn inside the Oval Office and the flag of the Confederacy was carried through the Capitol.
