On the Courthouse Lawn: Revised Edition

by Sherrilyn A. Ifill

The economic, political, social, and moral development of the United States was deeply compromised and undermined by racial bigotry.

local reparation initiatives might take the form of public apologies; expunging the records of or issuing pardons to black lynching victims who were accused of or convicted of crimes they did not commit; the creation of monuments or commemorative public spaces in the community; placing gravestones on the unmarked burial sites of lynching victims; mandatory school programs

on the local history of lynching; reopening criminal investigations into lynchings; financial compensation for lynching victims’ descendants and for those whose family homes or businesses were destroyed in the aftermath of lynching; and institutional reform focused on the legal system and the media.

history of racial terrorism continues to shape the relationship between and among blacks

A white community’s willingness to forthrightly address its history of racial violence through public plaques or markers recognizing the significance of these events is vital. More important is an opportunity for blacks to play an equal role in defining and developing the community’s public spaces in ways that honestly reflect the town’s history.

The willingness of lynchers to act publicly is tremendously significant. It reflects the lynchers’ certainty that they would never face punishment for their acts.

lynching was a tool of white supremacy. Other tools used during this period included the poll tax and other forms of voting disenfranchisement, sharecropping, segregation, employment discrimination, antimiscegenation laws, and so forth.

whites for the most part benefited economically and politically from the violent maintenance of white supremacy.

The criminal justice system, in particular, played a critical role in subordinating and marginalizing blacks in southern states.

persistent and shameful collusion between and among white legal actors to insulate white criminals from legal punishment for crimes against blacks and to deny black criminal defendants the most basic due process.

Typically these demands have centered on three themes: an accounting (truth-telling), compensation for victims (reparations), and healing (reconciliation).

The means of reconciliation explored in all these instances have included apology, financial compensation for slavery, criminal prosecution, and truth commissions.

Reconciliation and restorative justice, as well as reparation, suggest or imply a return to a previous period of peaceful coexistence or oneness in a community recently fractured by racial or ethnic division and violence. This assumption belies what is often the reality.

reparation is a symbolic effort to balance the scales and an articulation of responsibility for the harm done.

Lynching has increasingly emerged as the focus of reconciliation projects.

expunging the record of black men wrongly accused of violent crimes against whites, including the history of local lynching in school curricula, providing gravestones for the unmarked burial sites of lynching victims, creating advisory boards to monitor the portrayal of African Americans in local print media, and eliciting apologies from institutional leaders for a history of complicity in lynching should all be considered and examined as useful forms of reparation as well.

reparations must focus on meaningful change in the community and on ongoing dialogue and action.

The “new community” is one in which formerly excluded stories become part of the history, identity, and shared experience of all of the residents.

“White silence,” Carr realized, “is often just a refusal to acknowledge what black people have been through.”

“It is easier, and much more comfortable, to live with lies than to confront the truth and with that truth the possibility of individual guilt—and collective responsibility.”

want first to tell their story, then to have the truth accepted, and finally to ensure that contemporary conversations about race are placed in a historical context.

Lynching provided a disincentive for blacks in many communities to try to prosper economically or educationally because lynching was often motivated by white fear of black advancement.

Because any act perceived as racial insubordination could trigger violence, lynching imposed social, educational, and political controls on black life.