Monday, May 23, 2005
Freedom in Any Era Is Worth Celebrating
As a legacy of the forced servitude experienced by African Americans, historically, Emancipation Day is a celebration exclusive to them. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, in a Catch 22 situation and not wanting to alienate those slaveholding states that did not secede, issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Leading up to its passage, the Union army lost most of the early battles of the war. Therefore, the South had the upper hand. As the war progressed, there was a need for more manpower. After the Union army won the Battle of Antietam, one of the bloodiest scrimmages, as a strategy, Lincoln thought this was probably the best time to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. In effect, the Proclamation said that enslaved Africans in all states still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be free. From that point, although considered contraband, thousands of African Americans flocked to the Union lines to help fight and to escape oppression. Finally, with General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9, 1865, General Order Number Three authorizing their freedom traveled very slowly. So it wasn't until sometime later that African American in the Deep South and Texas acquired the news. Tallahasseans received notice on May 20, 1865 when General Edward McCook read the Emancipation Proclamation from the steps of what is now the Knott House on College and Park Aves.
By the following year, Emancipation Day celebrations sprang up immediately to memorialize this auspicious occasion. However, the date the freedom decree was delivered differs throughout the South. In Texas, Juneteenth celebrations originated to commemorate the date on June 19, 1865 when enslaved Africans there received official notice of their freedom. Due to the longevity of this celebration in Texas, other African American communities have since embraced this date. Yet if you traversed Centerville Road on this past, Saturday May 22nd, you possibly observed the festivities or overheard a cacophony of sounds. Interestingly, without a break, African Americans here still celebrate the 20th of May, speaking to their greater need to immortalize the plantation experience of their ancestors. Warding off encroachment by upscale housing developments, an enclave of African American residents reside there and maintain a park, which comes alive to educate and to ensure no one forgets the past infamy of slavery or the jubilation its abolition produced.
Traditionally, the observance constituted a day of remembrance and reclamation.
Celebrants always assembled on the actual date and referred to the holiday as the “20th of May.” Even most of their white employers recognized the importance of the day and released them from work. In rural sectors, administrators closed school for the day; whereas, in Tallahassee proper, they cancelled school a half day. People amassed in droves in their local communities to picnic, play games, perform, and dance. The celebration amounted to a feast day and offered a far greater range of food than any other holiday in the year. In addition, most remember most the homemade lemonade served from fifty-gallon steel drums. Also, the division of labor placed the making of lemonade and cooking of meats and frying of fish within the male domain, with women supplying main dishes and desserts.
In keeping with tradition, this year, several hundred guests began to assemble around 1 p.m. under a tent to witness a program consisting of sacred music and the spoken word. All participants are descendants of Sarah Johnson Hill, who initiated this particular celebration along with Debbie Edwards in 1924. Vera Jefferson Branton presided over the program intended to mirror the activities from days gone by. Hunter Hill, Jr. narrated the “Occasion,” specifying the longevity of the event and the family’s rich history. His brother, Otis Hill, provided a rousing overview entitled “Why We Celebrate.” He emphasized the family’s pride of place, emphasizing the planning that long accompanied Emancipation Day from the earlier building of a stage to the use of lime and water decoratively to whitewash the tree bottom of tree trunks. The real glory pertained to digging a hole to set the maypoles. The plaiting of the maypole remains a family tradition. As in bygone days, young children and then young adults embraced the opportunity to reenact a British custom that African Americans in the region have made their own to the artistic beating of snare and bass drums.
As in the past, the main theme of the celebration remained education. It is customary for school age boys and girls to recite poetry appropriate to their age by Langston Hughes and others. To foster an interest in intellectual pursuit, for about three weeks before the celebration, all the children in the community used to go to Mama Sarah's house to obtain a speech. Otis Hill stressed how as a child he had “to practice, practice, practice.” When their ancestors gave them something to learn, they expected compliance. Over a dozen descendants of the sponsoring families, the Hill, Jefferson, Jenkins, and Williams, did not disappoint. They performed group songs such as “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hand,” popularized by Mahalia Jackson. In conformity to past teachings, no detail seemed to be overlooked, except for the greasy pole, another European tradition local residents relished with their own twist. They would cut down a sweet gum tree and then take a knife and draw the bark off the tree. The tree would secrete resin that was very slippery and slimy. If you could climb to the top of the pole, you were the winner. According to family history, however, the man who brought the ham placed on top always took it back home. While lots of funs, no one could accomplish the deed.
Moreover, without charge or fanfare, the sponsors fed all in attendance and furnished entertainment performed by The Star Lite Rhythm and Blues Band. This Emancipation Day celebration continues to thrive strictly by word of mouth. For most guests, Emancipation Day remains as significant as Christmas or Easter. One does not have to be a direct descendant to benefit from sharing this glorious celebration of freedom, hope as well as continued spiritual and economic prosperity.
By the following year, Emancipation Day celebrations sprang up immediately to memorialize this auspicious occasion. However, the date the freedom decree was delivered differs throughout the South. In Texas, Juneteenth celebrations originated to commemorate the date on June 19, 1865 when enslaved Africans there received official notice of their freedom. Due to the longevity of this celebration in Texas, other African American communities have since embraced this date. Yet if you traversed Centerville Road on this past, Saturday May 22nd, you possibly observed the festivities or overheard a cacophony of sounds. Interestingly, without a break, African Americans here still celebrate the 20th of May, speaking to their greater need to immortalize the plantation experience of their ancestors. Warding off encroachment by upscale housing developments, an enclave of African American residents reside there and maintain a park, which comes alive to educate and to ensure no one forgets the past infamy of slavery or the jubilation its abolition produced.
Traditionally, the observance constituted a day of remembrance and reclamation.
Celebrants always assembled on the actual date and referred to the holiday as the “20th of May.” Even most of their white employers recognized the importance of the day and released them from work. In rural sectors, administrators closed school for the day; whereas, in Tallahassee proper, they cancelled school a half day. People amassed in droves in their local communities to picnic, play games, perform, and dance. The celebration amounted to a feast day and offered a far greater range of food than any other holiday in the year. In addition, most remember most the homemade lemonade served from fifty-gallon steel drums. Also, the division of labor placed the making of lemonade and cooking of meats and frying of fish within the male domain, with women supplying main dishes and desserts.
In keeping with tradition, this year, several hundred guests began to assemble around 1 p.m. under a tent to witness a program consisting of sacred music and the spoken word. All participants are descendants of Sarah Johnson Hill, who initiated this particular celebration along with Debbie Edwards in 1924. Vera Jefferson Branton presided over the program intended to mirror the activities from days gone by. Hunter Hill, Jr. narrated the “Occasion,” specifying the longevity of the event and the family’s rich history. His brother, Otis Hill, provided a rousing overview entitled “Why We Celebrate.” He emphasized the family’s pride of place, emphasizing the planning that long accompanied Emancipation Day from the earlier building of a stage to the use of lime and water decoratively to whitewash the tree bottom of tree trunks. The real glory pertained to digging a hole to set the maypoles. The plaiting of the maypole remains a family tradition. As in bygone days, young children and then young adults embraced the opportunity to reenact a British custom that African Americans in the region have made their own to the artistic beating of snare and bass drums.
As in the past, the main theme of the celebration remained education. It is customary for school age boys and girls to recite poetry appropriate to their age by Langston Hughes and others. To foster an interest in intellectual pursuit, for about three weeks before the celebration, all the children in the community used to go to Mama Sarah's house to obtain a speech. Otis Hill stressed how as a child he had “to practice, practice, practice.” When their ancestors gave them something to learn, they expected compliance. Over a dozen descendants of the sponsoring families, the Hill, Jefferson, Jenkins, and Williams, did not disappoint. They performed group songs such as “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hand,” popularized by Mahalia Jackson. In conformity to past teachings, no detail seemed to be overlooked, except for the greasy pole, another European tradition local residents relished with their own twist. They would cut down a sweet gum tree and then take a knife and draw the bark off the tree. The tree would secrete resin that was very slippery and slimy. If you could climb to the top of the pole, you were the winner. According to family history, however, the man who brought the ham placed on top always took it back home. While lots of funs, no one could accomplish the deed.
Moreover, without charge or fanfare, the sponsors fed all in attendance and furnished entertainment performed by The Star Lite Rhythm and Blues Band. This Emancipation Day celebration continues to thrive strictly by word of mouth. For most guests, Emancipation Day remains as significant as Christmas or Easter. One does not have to be a direct descendant to benefit from sharing this glorious celebration of freedom, hope as well as continued spiritual and economic prosperity.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
People Think That They Have Rights in This Country
For too many African American males, false imprisonment operates as a national means of sociopolitical control. Society tends to stigmatize young African American males, invisible no more, strictly as criminal elements. In “Portraits in Racial Profiling: When Clothes Make the Suspect,” written for the Village Voice in 2000, Peter Noel exposed how “’the felon look’ – that ‘Tupac-thug-for-life’ image – account[s] for a majority of the stops and frisks.” He also noted that whites wearing the same style are rarely criminalized According to one local public defender, the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) generally casts a broad net to arrest these African American males at an exorbitant rate. Policemen establish charges that can be plea-bargained down but still translate into long sentences. Prosecutors insist on upholding the sentencing guidelines set by Florida legislators, seemingly in violation of the separation of the judicial and legislative branches. Tallahassee’s State Attorney, William Meggs, is known for his aggressive prosecution. As reported by James L. Rosica in 2002 for The Tallahassee Democrat, “State Attorney Willie Meggs' office filed formal charges in 93 percent of 1999 arrests; the statewide average was 77.5 percent.” And jurors are not from among the defendants’ peers. Based on licensed drivers, they derive almost solely from the middle class instead of registered voters.
Christopher Smiley (his name is changed) represents this grim reality. Chris comes from an upstanding family that was changed forever by the wrongful imprisonment of their son, grandson, and nephew. On a sweltering summer day in 2003, he discovered himself charged for grand theft larceny of $100, 000. The charge carries a maximum sentence of thirty years. His girlfriend, a bank courier, apparently, failed to lock her vehicle, allowing someone to abscond with bags containing bank receipts and checks. Of course, no money was being transported. But rather than conducting a full investigation, the TPD focused only on Chris, without any evidence linking him to the bank’s property. Eventually, after perjuring herself, the girlfriend copped a plea, and Chris was left holding the proverbial bag. Writing to the judge, Chris expressed:
Dear, Judge ________
This [is] Christopher Smiley, the young man who [was] sent to trial on the 25th and lose, well first thing first how could ya’ll find a person guilty when there is no witnesses only and she has a perjury charge and also it wasn’t no evidence to link to me. Sir, on the day this happen I really was to my sister-in-law’s house, I was thinking that Mr. ________ was going to put her on the witness stand so she could notify that I was to her house, but he didn’t. I never agreed to nothing when I was at trial, except I said that I wasn’t going on the stand if I would’ve known then I would have gotten up there. Mr. ______, I am innocent of this crime and, if I have to go to prison, I will be back to prove that I am. Sir, I am not a troublemaker or bad I always catch myself in some B.S. if you [know what] I mean. I am not the mastermind behind this. In fact, I never knew nothing about this ‘til I got arrested the first time. Like I said, sir, my sister-in-law and my lover, which is her next-door neighbor, can notify that I was to her house. Sir, you can go check my record and you will not find grand theft or burglary on it because I am not that type of person.
His voice speaks for many presently in the Leon County jail and state prison system due to legal ineptness and misguided justice, not criminal activities. The public defender’s office is deluged with such cases. According to a well-known local criminal attorney, such letters are usually indicative of a defendant who retained poor legal council. Chris wrote his judge four letters. At one point in our history, we would expect this disregard for human rights and liberty from Leon County sheriffs. But today, the TPD defies all the gains of the Civil Rights Era and wantonly creates criminal records by entrapping unsuspecting youth. Of course, I do not equate all prisoners with false incarceration. In 2001, a Citizen Task Force Committed submitted to County Commissioners a report on the “Over-Representation of Black Youth and Adults in the Leon County Jail,” which revealed a nearly 1:4 ratio (white to African Americans). Being the highest of eight Florida counties, I would also project this predatory beast feasts on considerable monetary incentives for the arresting agency. In the Fiscal Year 2004, the Police Department's operating budget totaled $38.7 million dollars. In 2003, it reported an average daily population of 1,035. The TPD, with the unbridled support of the State Attorney’s Office, clutters the jail without regard to the truth behind convictions such as that experienced by Chris.
Mr. Judge ______________
This is Christopher Smiley again writing you to ask you to spare my life from the situation I am in. Mr. _________ I know I haven’t been a perfect person in my life, but everyone make mistakes, but these charges the state have on me is not one of the mistakes I made. Mr. ________ I was on my way to be a successful career man and probably to be an army man as soon as I would of got my G.E.D. I had goals I was trying to achieve, but now I can’t because I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. Sir just because the juror found me guilty really doesn’t mean I am, they don’t even know me not even as a person who has these charges pending on them. I am not a bad person Mr. ________ I’m just trying to straighten my life out. Sir, I will tell you and I will tell the whole world that I am innocent and that I have been lied on by a person who has a perjury charge and cant get her stories right. Sir, if you go back and look at my case she had told the police a million stories and she doesn’t know how to be honest. When I say her I mean _________ __________. She got on the stand and lied on me. The reason why I didn’t get on the stand was Mr. ________ said it wouldn’t be my best entrance [sic]. That’s why I kept saying ‘no’ when you were asking me. I never been to trial on a case before. So I didn’t know what to expect, I was just following my lawyer procedures as told. Before you make the decision on what you going do with me just go back and look at my case and you will wee how I have been framed. Please, Sir, I am innocent and I really need you to help me.
Do not let this melancholic voice go unrequited. The citizens of Tallahassee should call for a moratorium on the sentencing of young African American males arrested by the Tallahasse Police Department for nonviolent crimes to determine those wrongfully accused. Other city and state governances have imposed moratoriums on the use of stun guns (Chicago) and on the issuing of the death penalty (Illinois). We have no reason to feel safe in our homes knowing a general population is being preyed upon by city workers, whose sworn duties are to serve and to protect. As for Chris, he is supposed to be happy with a 48-month prison sentence at a facility where he cannot even earn his G.E.D.
More information:
For Rosica’s article, which bears out much of what is stated here, see www.kri.com/papers/greatstories/tally/justice1.html.
For too many African American males, false imprisonment operates as a national means of sociopolitical control. Society tends to stigmatize young African American males, invisible no more, strictly as criminal elements. In “Portraits in Racial Profiling: When Clothes Make the Suspect,” written for the Village Voice in 2000, Peter Noel exposed how “’the felon look’ – that ‘Tupac-thug-for-life’ image – account[s] for a majority of the stops and frisks.” He also noted that whites wearing the same style are rarely criminalized According to one local public defender, the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) generally casts a broad net to arrest these African American males at an exorbitant rate. Policemen establish charges that can be plea-bargained down but still translate into long sentences. Prosecutors insist on upholding the sentencing guidelines set by Florida legislators, seemingly in violation of the separation of the judicial and legislative branches. Tallahassee’s State Attorney, William Meggs, is known for his aggressive prosecution. As reported by James L. Rosica in 2002 for The Tallahassee Democrat, “State Attorney Willie Meggs' office filed formal charges in 93 percent of 1999 arrests; the statewide average was 77.5 percent.” And jurors are not from among the defendants’ peers. Based on licensed drivers, they derive almost solely from the middle class instead of registered voters.
Christopher Smiley (his name is changed) represents this grim reality. Chris comes from an upstanding family that was changed forever by the wrongful imprisonment of their son, grandson, and nephew. On a sweltering summer day in 2003, he discovered himself charged for grand theft larceny of $100, 000. The charge carries a maximum sentence of thirty years. His girlfriend, a bank courier, apparently, failed to lock her vehicle, allowing someone to abscond with bags containing bank receipts and checks. Of course, no money was being transported. But rather than conducting a full investigation, the TPD focused only on Chris, without any evidence linking him to the bank’s property. Eventually, after perjuring herself, the girlfriend copped a plea, and Chris was left holding the proverbial bag. Writing to the judge, Chris expressed:
Dear, Judge ________
This [is] Christopher Smiley, the young man who [was] sent to trial on the 25th and lose, well first thing first how could ya’ll find a person guilty when there is no witnesses only and she has a perjury charge and also it wasn’t no evidence to link to me. Sir, on the day this happen I really was to my sister-in-law’s house, I was thinking that Mr. ________ was going to put her on the witness stand so she could notify that I was to her house, but he didn’t. I never agreed to nothing when I was at trial, except I said that I wasn’t going on the stand if I would’ve known then I would have gotten up there. Mr. ______, I am innocent of this crime and, if I have to go to prison, I will be back to prove that I am. Sir, I am not a troublemaker or bad I always catch myself in some B.S. if you [know what] I mean. I am not the mastermind behind this. In fact, I never knew nothing about this ‘til I got arrested the first time. Like I said, sir, my sister-in-law and my lover, which is her next-door neighbor, can notify that I was to her house. Sir, you can go check my record and you will not find grand theft or burglary on it because I am not that type of person.
His voice speaks for many presently in the Leon County jail and state prison system due to legal ineptness and misguided justice, not criminal activities. The public defender’s office is deluged with such cases. According to a well-known local criminal attorney, such letters are usually indicative of a defendant who retained poor legal council. Chris wrote his judge four letters. At one point in our history, we would expect this disregard for human rights and liberty from Leon County sheriffs. But today, the TPD defies all the gains of the Civil Rights Era and wantonly creates criminal records by entrapping unsuspecting youth. Of course, I do not equate all prisoners with false incarceration. In 2001, a Citizen Task Force Committed submitted to County Commissioners a report on the “Over-Representation of Black Youth and Adults in the Leon County Jail,” which revealed a nearly 1:4 ratio (white to African Americans). Being the highest of eight Florida counties, I would also project this predatory beast feasts on considerable monetary incentives for the arresting agency. In the Fiscal Year 2004, the Police Department's operating budget totaled $38.7 million dollars. In 2003, it reported an average daily population of 1,035. The TPD, with the unbridled support of the State Attorney’s Office, clutters the jail without regard to the truth behind convictions such as that experienced by Chris.
Mr. Judge ______________
This is Christopher Smiley again writing you to ask you to spare my life from the situation I am in. Mr. _________ I know I haven’t been a perfect person in my life, but everyone make mistakes, but these charges the state have on me is not one of the mistakes I made. Mr. ________ I was on my way to be a successful career man and probably to be an army man as soon as I would of got my G.E.D. I had goals I was trying to achieve, but now I can’t because I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. Sir just because the juror found me guilty really doesn’t mean I am, they don’t even know me not even as a person who has these charges pending on them. I am not a bad person Mr. ________ I’m just trying to straighten my life out. Sir, I will tell you and I will tell the whole world that I am innocent and that I have been lied on by a person who has a perjury charge and cant get her stories right. Sir, if you go back and look at my case she had told the police a million stories and she doesn’t know how to be honest. When I say her I mean _________ __________. She got on the stand and lied on me. The reason why I didn’t get on the stand was Mr. ________ said it wouldn’t be my best entrance [sic]. That’s why I kept saying ‘no’ when you were asking me. I never been to trial on a case before. So I didn’t know what to expect, I was just following my lawyer procedures as told. Before you make the decision on what you going do with me just go back and look at my case and you will wee how I have been framed. Please, Sir, I am innocent and I really need you to help me.
Do not let this melancholic voice go unrequited. The citizens of Tallahassee should call for a moratorium on the sentencing of young African American males arrested by the Tallahasse Police Department for nonviolent crimes to determine those wrongfully accused. Other city and state governances have imposed moratoriums on the use of stun guns (Chicago) and on the issuing of the death penalty (Illinois). We have no reason to feel safe in our homes knowing a general population is being preyed upon by city workers, whose sworn duties are to serve and to protect. As for Chris, he is supposed to be happy with a 48-month prison sentence at a facility where he cannot even earn his G.E.D.
More information:
For Rosica’s article, which bears out much of what is stated here, see www.kri.com/papers/greatstories/tally/justice1.html.
