(ThyBlackMan.com) The abolitionist journalist Ida B. Wells’s quest to document lynchings began when three of her friends, Tommy Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Will Stewart, were lynched because whites were envious of their economic success. Moss, a highly regarded pastor, postal worker (a great job in the South in the 1890s), and activist started the People’s Grocery with two of his friends in the Curve area of Memphis, partly because the white owner held a monopoly and provided substandard service to Black shoppers. The white owner chafed at the competition and that Black men dared to stand up to him. When two youths got into a scuffle over marbles, white men went to confront Black men at the People’s Grocery. Shots were exchanged, and three Black men were eventually incarcerated, then lynched. Tommy Moss was a dear friend of Ida B. Wells. Her outrage at that lynching propelled her into documenting lynching around the South.
What would Wells write today about how the Tennessee legislature politically lynched Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, two young Black Democrats who protested that legislature’s inaction after the massacres of three children and three adults at the Nashville Covenant School? The details are less important than the fact that the shooter used automatic weapons, had an arsenal, and was prepared to massacre others. In the face of this carnage, the Tennessee state legislature refused to act on measures curtailing the ownership of automatic weapons. Thus, three legislators joined others protesting the inaction. In addition to the two Justins, a white woman legislator, Gloria Johnson, was threatened with expulsion. She avoided it by one vote.
Tommy Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Will Stewart were lynched because they dared take a stand against the economic exploitation of a white grocer whose monopoly power denied Black shoppers fair prices and hassle-free shopping experiences. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones were expelled from the Tennessee legislature for taking a stand against the gun violence that their fellow lawmakers refused to take a stand on. The Nashville Metro Council unanimously voted to reinstate Justin Jones, but he may have to run to regain his seat in a special election. As of this writing, Justin Pearson is waiting to find out whether he will be reappointed to his seat by the Shelby County Board of Commission, although some worry that state legislators may retaliate against Memphis.
Ida B. Wells was a principled woman whose writing about lynching resulted in her newspaper, the Memphis Free Speech, being destroyed. She was threatened with lynching and left Memphis for New York, where she continued writing. She was undeterred by her pointed writing putting her in physical jeopardy. Like Wells, the two Justins were undeterred by the potential consequences of their anti-gun protest. Like Wells, they are a profile in courage and conviction.
Both Justin Jones and Justin Pearson are under thirty. The resistance to their activism must encourage other young people to be similarly active. Unfortunately, too often, young people are discouraged from political participation. Many don’t vote because they find it cumbersome or because they feel it doesn’t make a difference. But the Justins are not only making a difference but inspiring others to do the same thing. People are thronging to Nashville, the state capital, to protest both the treatment of the Justins, but also the inaction of the legislature in the face of gun violence.
The Tennessee legislature behaved unjustly in expelling the Justins. Their selective discipline of these young men is in sharp contrast to their treatment of Rep. Paul Sherrell, who advocated “hanging from a tree” as a form of capital punishment. Sherrell offered a tepid apology after members of the Black Caucus called his resignation or, at the very least, censure from his colleagues. He was not rebuked. He did not resign. He was unscathed by his abhorrent statements. He apologized for his “poor judgment,” but it was more than poor judgment that lynched Tommy Moss and his colleagues.
According to the Equal Justice Initiative, 236 Black people were lynched in Tennessee between 1877 and 1950. Those murdered by racial terror included journalists, business leaders, and teachers. These Black people were lynched because they were activists who stood up to the virulent racism that defines our nation. While Justin Jones and Justin Pearce did not find ropes around their necks, their political lynching is shameful but not unusual in a state where elected officials hark back to the days of lynching, where racists have killed 236 Black people. May the treatment of the Justins inspire us to resist racism. One of the signs outside the capitol said it succinctly. “No Justins, no peace”.
Written by Julianne Malveaux
Official website; https://www.juliannemalveaux.com/
You seem to be a Christian based organization that believes in the inerrant Word of God. That is what I perceive from reading some of your biblical articles. I would guess that you are a group that stands by what God’s Word says. If that is the case, these two men that were removed from the Tennesse legislature, do you know what their beliefs are when it comes to the Word of God? It has been my experience those who are of the Democratic party believe killing babies is ok with them. If that is the case, they believe that way, does God’s Word want you to defend them or tell them about a loving God who died on a cross for them and how it is a violation of God’s Word to murder babies? I say all of this respectfully and humbly. Remember this, hell knows no color! I don’t defend those who oppose the scriptures no matter what color they are, do you? May the God of heaven keep you on His path according to His Word. Thank You!
Pelvo White;
Some State Governments Are Out of Compliance with the Conditions of Their Surrenders After the Civil War, and Should be Sanctioned
Published on April 29, 2021
The government of the United States of America should completely review, identify, prosecute, and sanction those elected, and non-elected individuals and or groups of individuals for their illegal political activities (legislation, and incitements that tended to prohibit the enforcement of the 13th,14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, especially voting rights) within these state governments, all who sponsored secession activities prior to, during, and after the Civil War. These parties should also be held accountable for the January 6, 2021 violent attack upon the U.S. Capitol Building located in Washington, D.C. in the personages of numerous participants from previously seceded confederate states, and also for their U.S. Constitutional civil rights violations of civilian, and military citizen forces through their state, and federal government representatives, state and local police forces, and National Guard Forces, of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, and Kentucky, all states that sponsored the Civil War. These rebelling states should be sanctioned by the U.S. Government by providing better management of all shared governmental revenues, and other monetary incentives geared towards helping the economic welfare of these states to make sure that this funding is not being used to aid the entities involved in rebelling against the United States of America.