#Maceo Snipes

[whitesinhistory]

On July 18, 1946, a white mob shot a 37-year-old Black veteran named Maceo Snipes at his home in Butler, Georgia. A day earlier, Mr. Snipes had exercised his constitutional right to vote in the Georgia Democratic Primary, becoming the only Black man to vote in the election in Taylor County. For this he was targeted and lynched.

Mr. Snipes had served in the U.S. Army for two and a half years during World War II and, after receiving an honorable discharge, had returned home to Taylor County, Georgia, to work as a sharecropper with his mother. Mr. Snipes’s family later recalled that he had received threats from the Ku Klux Klan in the days leading up to the election, but he still bravely went to vote in the gubernatorial primary on July 17, 1946.

Just two years before, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Smith v. Allwright had ruled it unconstitutional for political parties to hold “all-white primaries,” in which only white voters were permitted to participate in choosing the party’s candidate. This established that Mr. Snipes and other Black people were legally entitled to vote in the primary, but many white Georgians resented the ruling—including candidate Eugene Talmadge, who campaigned on a promise to restore white primaries in the state. A staunch white supremacist, Mr. Talmadge had been previously elected governor of Georgia on three occasions with a segregationist platform and the open support of white terrorists groups, including the Ku Klux Klan. “The South loves the Negro in his place,” Mr. Talmadge had said in a 1942 campaign speech, “but his place is at the back door.”

When the primary concluded, Mr. Talmadge had won the party’s nomination and received the most support in rural areas. When Taylor County votes were tallied, Mr. Talmadge had won all but one vote—and white community members believed that Mr. Snipes, known to be the only Black voter in the county, had cast that lone vote of opposition.

A day after the primary, a mob of white men, including a white veteran named Edward Williamson, arrived at Mr. Snipes’s grandfather’s house in a pickup truck and called out Mr. Snipes’s name. Mr. Snipes got up from the table where he was eating dinner with his mother and went outside to see who was there, only to be shot multiple times at his own front door. The truck of men then drove away.

Severely wounded and assisted by his mother, Mr. Snipes walked for several miles searching for help before he was finally transported to a hospital in Butler and admitted for care. According to his family, the hospital’s segregation policies delayed Mr. Snipes’s treatment for several hours; relatives later recounted that a doctor told them Mr. Snipes urgently needed a blood transfusion but could not get one because the hospital did not have any “Black blood” to use. Two days later, on July 20, 1946, Mr. Snipes died.

By assertively exercising his constitutional right to vote, Mr. Snipes had become a target for white people committed to maintaining white supremacy and racial hierarchy.

Mr. Snipes’s veteran status also added to his vulnerability. White people intent on maintaining Jim Crow and racial subjugation of Black people worried that military service would make Black men leaders in the fight for racial equality at home and frequently targeted Black veterans returning from World War II with racial violence for wearing their uniforms in public, asserting their rights, or denouncing inequality. Black veterans often faced horrible discrimination, mistreatment, and even murder at the hands of white Americans determined to suppress their potential activism. During the era of racial terror, lynching was meant to send a message of domination and to instill fear within the entire Black community. After threats of further attacks, Mr. Snipes’s body was buried in an unmarked grave and several members of his family fled with their young children to Ohio.

When local authorities investigated Mr. Snipes’s shooting, Edward Williamson admitted to killing him but claimed Mr. Snipes had pulled a knife on him when he went to the Snipes home to collect a debt. A member of a prominent white family in Taylor County, Mr. Williamson’s story was believed at face value despite contrary assertions in Mr. Snipes’s deathbed statement and his mother’s witness testimony. The coroner's jury ultimately ruled that the shooting had been in “self-defense,” and no one was ever held accountable for Mr. Snipes’s death.

Between the end of Reconstruction and the years following World War II, thousands of Black veterans were accosted, assaulted, and attacked, and many were lynched. Brave Black men and women, like Mr. Maceo Snipes, risked their lives to defend this country’s freedom only to have their own freedom denied and threatened, or their lives tragically taken, because of racial bigotry.

To learn more about the racial discrimination and violence experienced by generations of Black veterans, read EJI’s report, Lynching in America: Targeting Black Veterans. 

[lboogie1906]

Maceo Snipes (March 28, 1909 - July 18, 1946) an Army WWII veteran, was fatally shot in the back after casting his vote in the Georgia Democratic Primary. He was the only African American to vote in a Democratic primary in Taylor County, Georgia. The kkk was in its prime and was responsible for multiple lynchings of Black people who decided to vote following his murder. He and his mother were both sharecroppers on Homer Chapman’s land. The day after he voted, four white males pulled up to the land. All four were suspected kkk members: two were identified as Edward Williamson and Lynwood Harvey, both WWII veterans. They confronted him, and it ended with Williamson shooting him in the back. He and his mother walked to Chapman’s house. Chapman helped them walk 3 miles to the hospital. The hospital staff did not treat him until six hours later. He needed a blood transfusion. The staff claimed that they did not have any “Black blood”. Two days later, he died in the hospital. In front of a coroner’s jury, Williamson claimed that he owed him a $10 debt, and said that he had pulled out a knife, so he shot him twice in the back, claiming self-defense. Coroner J.D. Cooke and a jury declared the actions as justified. Williamson was exonerated on his charges on July 29, 1946.

They buried him at an unmarked grave in the Butler cemetery. It is not known exactly where Snipes’ body is buried. He did not receive a proper empty casket burial until 2007. His story, along with the murder of the two black couples, received coverage in the newspapers, such as the Atlanta Constitution. A 17-year-old student at Morehouse College, Martin Luther King Jr., wrote a letter in response to the newspaper’s remarks on the killings of him and the lynchings of two Black married couples.

In February 2007, the Georgia NAACP and the Prison and Jail Project sent a letter to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales requesting a federal probe of the murder. In announcing the reopening of decades-old suspicious murders in the civil rights era a few weeks after the request, the Justice Department declined to comment on whether the probe would include his case. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[blackdiscoveries]

You Will Remember His Name: Maceo Snipes

You Will Remember His Name: Maceo Snipes 🪖🇺🇸🎖️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beXBWoKCk6U In this powerful video, we delve into the tragic and heroic story of Maceo Snipes, a 37-year-old World War II veteran who faced a devastating fate in Butler, Georgia, in 1946. You will remember his name: Maceo Snipes, as we uncover the historical facts and black culture that shaped his life and untimely death. Maceo Snipes made the courageous decision to vote in an all-white election, challenging the oppressive norms of his time. This act of bravery led to his murder by a mob of white men, determined to silence his voice. We explore the civil rights struggles, the impact of the Ku Klux Klan, and the harsh reality of racial discrimination that defined this period in black history. Join us as we remember Maceo Snipes, a symbol of resilience and courage. Learn about the events leading up to his death, the hospital's refusal to provide a blood transfusion, and the heartbreaking aftermath. This documentary sheds light on the civil rights movement, the sacrifices of black veterans, and the ongoing fight for justice and equality. Watch this video to honor the memory of Maceo Snipes and to gain a deeper understanding of black history and the enduring legacy of those who fought for civil rights. Subscribe to Black Discoveries for more insightful content on black culture, historical facts, and the stories that shape our world. #youwillrememberhisname #maceosnipes #blackdiscoveries #blackculture #historicalfacts #blm #civilrights #blackhistory #georgia #maceosnipesgeorgia #whathappenedtomaceosnipes #maceosnipesdocumentary #worldwarii #veteran #shorts via Black Discoveries https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTNr0N__QwstBhgCtvQcjhA July 19, 2024 at 04:04AM

[wcegtalkradio]

Stay Tuned for the Season Finale of Issues and Answers on WCEG Network with host @normana.carter Jr., and very special guest M. Adrienne Jones, J.D., Phd - Assistant Professor, Political Science Director, Pre-Law Program Fellow, Andrew Young Center for Global Justice @morehouse1867 College. Topics: The racist origins of runoff elections in Georgia, but there are other areas concerning the political climate in this state we can attempt to delve into during our discussion. Among them are: The murder of Maceo Snipes in ~1946. He was a WWII veteran and was the first Black man to vote in Taylor, Georgia; ~The Atlanta Negro Voter League of 1946; ~Shelby County vs Holder - your understanding and how impactful that is to Georgia's African-American community. ~Was the attempted closing of polling places in Randolph County, GA in 2020 a harbinger of Georgia's future. ~The gutting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Does it exacerbate voter apathy? ~The tone deafness of both political parties when it comes to the needs of minorities and Americans living in poverty. (example: the refusal of Governor Kemp and other Republican Governors to accept Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.) Watch livestream: YT TWR FB IN @wcegnetwork @wceg_talk_radio www.wcegtalkradio.com www.wceg radio.com #wcegnetworktv #wcegnetwork #wcegtalkradio #wcegradio #wceg #originsofrunoffelectionsinga #RacismStillExists #votersuppression https://www.instagram.com/p/ClgZq4hLFux/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Stephen Millies

World War II veteran Maceo Snipes was the first Black person to vote in a primary election in Georgia’s Taylor County on July 17, 1946. Seventy-five years after Snipes was murdered by Klansmen, the Georgia state legislature made it illegal to offer a chair or a glass of water to people waiting in line to vote, even if they were elderly or disabled.

What should be illegal are laws like these that try to prevent poor and working people from voting. Hundreds of laws are being railroaded through state capitols designed to deprive people of their voting rights.

[moviemosaics]

All In: The Fight for Democracy

directed by Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés, 2020

[2plan22]

RT @AriBerman: Thinking today of Maceo Snipes, black World War II vet who voted in Georgia Democratic primary in 1946 & was first black man to vote in Taylor County under Jim Crow One day later he was shot in the back by KKK This is why we all must vote https://t.co/SwiUZCcQgU 2PLAN22 http://twitter.com/2PLAN22/status/1346621672690954242

Thinking today of Maceo Snipes, black World War II vet who voted in Georgia Democratic primary in 1946 & was first black man to vote in Taylor County under Jim Crow One day later he was shot in the back by KKK This is why we all must vote pic.twitter.com/SwiUZCcQgU

�� Ari Berman (@AriBerman) January 5, 2021

[unknown-songs]

BLACK LIVES MATTER

A list with black artists who have a song in the Unknown Songs That Should Be Known-playlist (Can be a black artist in a band or just solo-artist) (no specific genre)

Bull’s Eye - Blacknuss, Prince Prime - Funk Aftershow - Joe Fox - Alternative Hip-hop Strangers in the Night - Ben L’Oncle Soul - Soul Explore - Mack Wilds - R&B Something To Do - IGBO - Funk

Down With The Trumpets - Rizzle Kicks - Pop Dans ta ville - Dub Inc. - Reggae Dance or Die - Brooklyn Funk Essentials - Funk FACELESS - The PLAYlist, Glenn Lewis - R&B Tell Me Father - Jeangu Macrooy - Soul

Southern Boy - John The Conquerer - Blues Hard Rock Savannah Grass - Kes - Dancehall Dr. Funk - The Main Squeeze - Funk Seems I’m Never Tired of Loving You - Lizz Wright - Jazz Out of My Hands - TheColorGrey, Oddisee - Hip-Hop/Pop

Raised Up in Arkansas - Michael Burks - Blues Black Times - Sean Kuti, Egypt 80, Carlos Santana - Afrobeat Cornerstone - Benjamin Clementine - Indie Shine On - R.I.O., Madcon - Electronic Pop Bass On The Line - Bernie Worrell - Funk

When We Love - Jhené Aiko - R&B Need Your Love - Curtis Harding - Soul Too Dry to Cry - Willis Earl Beal - Folk Your House - Steel Pulse - Reggae Power - Moon Boots, Black Gatsby - Deep House

Vinyl Is My Bible - Brother Strut - Funk Diamond - Izzy Biu - R&B Elusive - blackwave., David Ngyah - Hip-hop Don’t Ever Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down - Heritage Blues Orchestra - Blues Sastanàqqàm - Tinariwen - Psychedelic Rock

Disco To Go - Brides of Funkenstein - Funk/Soul Circles - Durand Jones & The Indications - Retro Pop Cheesin’ - Cautious Clay, Remi Wolf, sophie meiers - R&B Changes - Charles Bradley - Soul The Sweetest Sin - RAEVE - House

Gyae Su - Pat Thomas, Kwashibu Area Band - Funk What Am I to Do - Ezra Collective, Loyle Carner - Hip-hop Get Your Groove On - Cedric Burnside - Blues Old Enough To Know Better - Steffen Morrisson - Soul Wassiye - Habib Koité - Khassonke musique

Dance Floor - Zapp - Funk Wake Up - Brass Against, Sophia Urista - Brass Hard-Rock BIG LOVE - Black Eyed Peas - Pop The Greatest - Raleigh Ritchie - R&B DYSFUNCTIONAL - KAYTRANADA, VanJess - Soul

See You Leave - RJD2, STS, Khari Mateen - Hip-hop Sing A Simple Song - Maceo Parker - Jazz/Funk Have Mercy - Eryn Allen Kane - Soul Homenage - Brownout - Latin Funk Can’t Sleep - Gary Clark Jr. - Blues Rock

Toast - Koffee - Dancehall Freedom - Ester Dean - R&B Iskaba - Wande Coal, DJ Tunez - Afropop High Road - Anthony Riley - Alternative Christian Sunny Days - Sabrina Starke - Soul

The Talking Fish - Ibibio Sound Machine - Funk Paralyzed - KWAYE - Indie Purple Heart Blvd - Sebastian Kole - Pop WORSHIP - The Knocks, MNEK - Deep House BMO - Ari Lennox - R&B

Promises - Myles Sanko - Soul .img - Brother Theodore - Funk Singing the Blues - Ruthie Foster, Meshell Ndegeocello - Blues Nobody Like You - Amartey, SBMG, The Livingtons - Hip-hop Starship - Afriquoi, Shabaka Hutchings, Moussa Dembele - Deep House

Lay My Troubles Down - Aaron Taylor - Funk  Bloodstream - Tokio Myers - Classic Sticky - Ravyn Lenae - R&B Why I Try - Jalen N’Gonda - Soul Motivation - Benjamin Booker - Folk

quand c’est - Stromae - Pop Let Me Down (Shy FX Remix) - Jorja Smith, Stormzy, SHY FX - Reggae Funny - Gerald Levert - R&B Salt in my Wounds - Shemekia Copeland - Blues Our Love - Samm Henshaw - Soul

Make You Feel That Way - Blackalicious - Jazz Hip-hop Knock Me Out - Vintage Trouble - Funk Take the Time - Ronald Bruner, Jr., Thundercat - Alternative Thru The Night - Phonte, Eric Roberson - R&B Keep Marchin’ - Raphael Saadiq - Soul

Shake Me In Your Arms - Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’ - Blues Meet Me In The Middle - Jodie Abascus - Pop Raise Hell - Sir the Baptist, ChurchPpl - Gospel Pop Mogoya - Oumou Sangaré - Wassoulou Where’s Yesterday - Slakah The Beatchild - Hip-hop

Lose My Cool - Amber Mark - R&B New Funk - Big Sam’s Funky Nation - Funk I Got Love - Nate Dogg - Hip-hop Nothing’s Real But Love - Rebecca Ferguson - Soul Crazy Race - The RH Factor - Jazz

Spies Are Watching Me - Voilaaa, Sir Jean - Funk The Leaders - Boka de Banjul - Afrobeat Fast Lane - Rationale - House Conundrum - Hak Baker - Folk Don’t Make It Harder On Me - Chloe x Halle - R&B

Plastic Hamburgers - Fantastic Negrito - Hardrock Beyond - Leon Bridges - Pop God Knows - Dornik - Soul Soleil de volt - Baloji - Afrofunk Do You Remember - Darryl Williams, Michael Lington - Jazz Get Back - McClenney - Alternative Three Words - Aaron Marcellus - Soul

Spotify playlist 

In memory of:

Aaron Bailey Adam Addie Mae Collins Ahmaud Arbery Aiyana Stanley Jones Akai Gurley Alberta Odell Jones Alexia Christian Alfonso Ferguson Alteria Woods Alton Sterling Amadou Diallo Amos Miller Anarcha Westcott Anton de Kom Anthony Hill Antonio Martin Antronie Scott Antwon Rose Jr. Arthur St. Clair Atatiana Jefferson Aubrey Pollard Aura Rosser Bennie Simons Berry Washington Bert Dennis Bettie Jones Betsey Billy Ray Davis Bobby Russ Botham Jean Brandon Jones Breffu Brendon Glenn Breonna Taylor Bud Johnson Bussa

Calin Roquemore Calvin McDowell Calvin Mike and his family Carl Cooper Carlos Carson Carlotta Lucumi Carol Denise McNair Carol Jenkins Carole Robertson Charles Curry Charles Ferguson Charles Lewis Charles Wright Charly Leundeu Keunang Chime Riley Christian Taylor Christopher Sheels Claude Neal Clementa Pickney Clifford Glover Clifton Walker Clinton Briggs Clinton R. Allen Cordella Stevenson Corey Carter Corey Jones Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd Cynthia Wesley

Daniel L. Simmons Danny Bryant Darius Randell Robinson Darius Tarver Darrien Hunt Darrius Stewart David Felix David Joseph David McAtee David Walker and his family Deandre Brunston Deborah Danner Delano Herman Middleton Demarcus Semer Demetrius DuBose Depayne Middleton-Doctor Dion Johnson Dominique Clayton Dontre Hamilton Dred Scott

Edmund Scott Ejaz Choudry Elbert Williams Eleanor Bumpurs Elias Clayton Elijah McClain Eliza Woods Elizabeth Lawrence Elliot Brooks Ellis Hudson Elmer Jackson Elmore Bolling Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. Emmett Till Eric Garner Eric Harris Eric Reason Ernest Lacy Ernest Thomas Ervin Jones Eugene Rice Eugene Williams Ethel Lee Lance Ezell Ford

Felix Kumi Frank Livingston Frank Morris Frank Smart Frazier B. Baker Fred Hampton Fred Rochelle Fred Temple Freddie Carlos Gray Jr.

George Floyd George Grant George Junius Stinney Jr. George Meadows George Waddell George Washington Lee Gregory Gunn

Harriette Vyda Simms Moore Harry Tyson Moore Hazel “Hayes” Turner Henry Ezekial Smith Henry Lowery Henry Ruffin Henry Scott Hosea W. Allen

India Kager Isaac McGhie Isadore Banks Italia Marie Kelly

Jack Turner Jamar Clark Jamel Floyd James Byrd Jr. James Craig Anderson James Earl Chaney James Powell James Ramseur James Tolliver James T. Scott Janet Wilson Jason Harrison Javier Ambler J.C. Farmer Jemel Roberson Jerame Reid Jesse Thornton Jessie Jefferson Jim Eastman Joe Nathan Roberts John Cecil Jones John Crawford III John J. Gilbert John Ruffin John Taylor Johnny Robinson Jonathan Ferrell Jonathan Sanders Jordan Edwards Joseph Mann Julia Baker Julius Jones July Perry Junior Prosper

Kalief Browder Karvas Gamble Jr. Keith Childress, Jr. Kelly Gist Kelso Benjamin Cochrane Kendrick Johnson Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. Kenny Long Kevin Hicks Kevin Matthews Kiwane Albert Carrington

Lacy Mitchell Lamar Smith Laquan McDonald Laura Nelson Laura Wood L.B. Reed L.D. Nelson Lemuel Penn Lemuel Walters Leonard Deadwyler Leroy Foley Levi Harrington Lila Bella Carter Lloyd Clay Louis Allen Lucy

M.A. Santa Cruz Maceo Snipes Malcom X Malice Green Malissa Williams Manuel Ellis Marcus Deon Smith Marcus Foster Marielle Franco Mark Clark Maria Martin Lee Anderson Martin Luther King Jr. Matthew Avery Mary Dennis Mary Turner Matthew Ajibade May Noyes Mckenzie Adams Medgar Wiley Evers Michael Brown Michael Donald Michael Griffith Michael Lee Marshall Michael Lorenzo Dean Michael Noel Michael Sabbie Michael Stewart Michelle Cusseaux Miles Hall Moses Green Mya Hall Myra Thompson

Nathaniel Harris Pickett Jr. Natasha McKenna Nicey Brown Nicholas Heyward Jr.

O’Day Short family Orion Anderson Oscar Grant III Otis Newsom

Pamela Turner Paterson Brown Jr. Patrick Dorismond Philando Castile Phillip Pannell Phillip White Phinizee Summerour

Quaco

Ramarley Graham Randy Nelson Raymond Couser Raymond Gunn Regis Korchinski-Paquet Rekia Boyd Renisha McBride Riah Milton Robert Hicks Robert Mallard Robert Truett Rodney King Roe Nathan Roberts Roger Malcolm and his wife Roger Owensby Jr. Ronell Foster Roy Cyril Brooks Rumain Brisbon Ryan Matthew Smith

Sam Carter Sam McFadden Samuel DuBose Samuel Ephesians Hammond Jr. Samuel Hammond Jr. Samuel Leamon Younge Jr. Sandra Bland Sean Bell Shali Tilson Sharonda Coleman-Singleton Shukri Abdi Simon Schuman Slab Pitts Stella Young Stephon Clark Susie Jackson

T.A. Allen Tamir Rice Tamla Horsford Tanisha Anderson Timothy Caughman Timothy Hood Timothy Russell Timothy Stansbury Jr. Timothy Thomas Terrence Crutcher Terrill Thomas Tom Jones Tom Moss Tony McDade Tony Terrell Robinson Jr. Trayvon Martin Troy Hodge Troy Robinson Tula Tyler Gerth Tyre King Tywanza Sanders

Victor Duffy Jr. Victor White III

Walter Lamar Scott Wayne Arnold Jones Wesley Thomas Wilbert Cohen Wilbur Bundley Will Brown Will Head Will Stanley Will Stewart Will Thompson Willie James Howard Willie Johnson Willie McCoy Willie Palmer Willie Turks William Brooks William Butler William Daniels William Fambro William Green William L. Chapman II William Miller William Pittman Wyatt Outlaw

Yusef Kirriem Hawkins

The victims of LaLaurie (1830s) The black victims of the Opelousas massacre (1868) The black victims of the Thibodaux massacre (1887) The black victims of the Wilmington insurrection (1898) The black victims of the Johnson-Jeffries riots (1910) The black victims of the Red summer (1919) The black victims of the Elaine massacre (1919) The black victims of the Ocoee massacre (1920) The victims of the MOVE bombing (1985)

All the people who died during the Atlantic slave trade, be it due to abuse or disease.

All the unnamed victims of mass-incarceration, who were put into jail without the committing of a crime and died while in jail or died after due to mental illness. 

All the unnamed victims of racial violence and discrimination. 

...

My apologies for all the people missing on this list. Feel free to add more names and stories. 

Listen, learn and read about discrimination, racism and black history: (feel free to add more)  Documentaries: 13th (Netflix) The Innocence Files (Netflix) Who Killed Malcolm X? (Netflix) Time: The Kalief Browder Story (Netflix) I Am Not Your Negro

YouTube videos: We Cannot Stay Silent about George Floyd Waarom ook Nederlanders de straat op gaan tegen racisme (Dutch) Wit is ook een kleur (Dutch) (documentaire)

Books: Biased by Jennifer Eberhardt Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri Freedom Is A Constant Struggle by Angela Davis How To Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo They Can’t Kill Us All by Wesley Lowery White Fragility by Robin Deangelo Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge Woman, Race and Class by Angela Davis

Websites: https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/ https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/ https://archive.org/details/thirtyyearsoflyn00nati/page/n11/mode/2up https://lab.nos.nl/projects/slavernij/index-english.html https://blacklivesmatter.com/ https://www.zinnedproject.org/

[delux2222]

On July 17, 1946, World War II veteran Maceo Snipes cast his vote in the Georgia Democratic Primary, becoming the first African-American to cast a vote in Taylor County, and in a Democratic primary.

Snipes knew that he was risking his life by voting in the Jim Crow South, but he also knew that the Supreme Court had recently granted “all citizens a right to participate in the choice of elected officials without restriction by any state because of race” in Smith vs. Allwright.

The next day, on July 18, four members of the local Ku Klux Klan chapter went to Snipes farmhouse and shot him in the back.

He walked three miles to the hospital with his mother. The doctors left him waiting for six hours. By then, he needed a blood transfusion. The doctors claimed the hospital had no “Black blood.” Snipes died two days later. [Zinn]

[mdsc951]

On July 17, 1946, World War II veteran Maceo Snipes cast his vote in the Georgia Democratic Primary, becoming the first African-American to cast a vote in Taylor County, and in a Democratic primary. Snipes knew that he was risking his life by voting in the Jim Crow South, but he also knew that the Supreme Court had recently granted “all citizens a right to participate in the choice of elected officials without restriction by any state because of race” in Smith v. Allwright. The next day, on July 18, four members of the local Ku Klux Klan chapter went to Snipes’ farmhouse and shot him in the back. He walked three miles to the hospital with his mother. The doctors left him waiting for six hours. By then, he needed a blood transfusion. "The doctors claimed the hospital had no “Black blood.” Snipes died two days later." (at DuSable Museum of African American History) https://www.instagram.com/p/CfBcIiQODlW/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[leanpick]

Opinion | Georgia’s Voter Law Is Called ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ for a Reason

Opinion | Georgia’s Voter Law Is Called ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ for a Reason

Seventy-five years ago this July, a World War II veteran named Maceo Snipes reportedly became the first Black man to cast a ballot in his rural Georgia county. The next day, a white man shot him in his front yard, and Mr. Snipes would soon afterward die from those wounds. Fortunately, three generations removed from the political reign of terror that claimed Mr. Snipes’s life, voter suppression…

[diaspora9ja]

The week that changed American politics

I’d been heartsick, these final 4 years, about what my children had been seeing. In regards to the impression they had been forming of their nation.

However now I used to be truly sick to my abdomen.

Till that second, I’d been planning to put in writing one thing totally different from this piece. One thing centered solely on the implications of Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff profitable their Senate runoff elections in Georgia.

It appeared like the beginning of a long-anticipated however heretofore out-of-reach shift in American politics — the nation’s rising variety opening up new prospects for Democrats in historically conservative elements of the nation.

And it was a second of recent prospects for Joe Biden, whose ambition for an FDR-size presidency now not appeared far-fetched; the Georgia victories would ship Democrats management of the Senate and full their Washington takeover.

However now there was this unusual collision.

The gut-wrenching defacement of American democracy — of my children’ democracy — had smashed up towards the promise and energy of a brand new day within the capital.

It was political. It was private. And it felt like a turning level.

On this tumultuous week, one thing had modified in American public life.

New alternatives

In 1946, the federal courts struck down Georgia’s only-whites-can-vote primaries.

And Maceo Snipes, again in his small city of Butler, Ga., after having served within the navy in World Battle II, became the first Black person in Taylor County to solid a poll in a gubernatorial major.

The subsequent day, 4 white males turned up at his grandfather’s farmhouse, the place Snipes was consuming dinner together with his mom Lula, known as him outdoors, and shot him within the again.

Later, a sign was affixed to a local church that learn, “The primary Negro to vote won’t ever vote once more.”

A supporter of President Trump carried a Accomplice flag by way of the halls of the Capitol.SAUL LOEB/AFP through Getty Photographs

The Civil Rights Act of 1965 tamed among the worst voter suppression in Georgia and different Southern states. Nevertheless it endured, in some type, into the twenty first century.

From 2010 to 2018, Georgia’s then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp purged 1.4 million just lately inactive voters from the rolls. And an “precise match” regulation, requiring names on voter registration varieties to completely match these on identification, disproportionately affected Black individuals.

That and a deep conservative streak on this majority-white Southern state had restricted the Democratic Celebration’s energy for many years.

However one thing was shifting on the bottom. An awesome “reverse migration” noticed Black individuals returning to Georgia in giant numbers — drawn by Atlanta’s booming economic system and thriving Black tradition. Seven Atlanta-area counties registered some of the nation’s largest gains in Black population within the 2010s.

The Latino and Asian populations grew, too. And Stacey Abrams, a Black state legislator who took over the Democratic caucus in 2011, launched a brand new technique to revive her moribund occasion.

Reasonably than doing all they might to courtroom white, rural voters and narrowly win the occasional high-profile election, Democrats leaned into the state’s mounting variety. Via a company Abrams based known as the New Georgia Venture, she began registering tens of 1000’s of voters in historically ignored communities.

A 2016 state regulation that mechanically registered those that utilized for driver’s licenses — an necessary departure from Georgia’s historical past of voter suppression — swelled the voter rolls, too.

And in 2018, in a run for governor, Abrams fell simply 55,000 votes wanting a significant upset.

However she stored organizing, constructing towards a Democratic majority. And within the fall, Abrams’s decade-long mission scored a significant victory with Biden’s slender win in Georgia. This week, it peaked with the Warnock and Ossoff triumphs.

Denise and Invoice Hasbune of Stone Mountain, Ga., stuffed out a preregistration type whereas ready in line to vote in Decatur, Ga., on Oct. 12.Ben Grey/Related Press

To make certain, President Trump’s uniquely noxious politics performed an necessary function in his defeat. The wrecking ball he swung within the run-up to the Senate runoffs — incessantly speaking up voter fraud hoaxes and leaning on the Republican secretary of state to “discover” him sufficient votes to reverse the November consequence — little doubt took a toll.

However the demographic shift that powered the Georgia earthquake is undeniably a mounting drive. In 1976, about 1 in 10 American voters had been nonwhite. Now, it’s about 3 in 10. And the shift within the citizens has been particularly sharp within the final 4 years.

There are 5 million fewer voting-age white People with no faculty diploma now than there have been in 2016, the New York Times reported in the fall, and there are 13 million extra voters of colour and college-educated white voters mixed.

It is going to be a while earlier than these adjustments essentially reshape an American political system that offers outsize energy to whiter, much less populous elements of the nation. Biden, when he takes workplace, may have a really slender Democratic majority within the Home, and the Senate can be break up 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting any tie-breaking votes.

However in an odd method, that skinny margin would possibly allow the kind of transformative presidency Biden is envisioning.

With out a filibuster-proof majority within the Senate, Democrats may have little incentive to pursue fractious fights over immigration and voter rights. As an alternative, the main target can be on a process often called “funds reconciliation” that permits for a easy majority vote on tax-and-spend points — and tax-and-spend points alone.

These are the financial points which have all the time animated the president-elect — and have taken on a brand new urgency within the final yr.

Final spring, with the coronavirus bearing down on the nation, Biden hunkered down in his lakeside home in Wilmington, Del., and began plotting a sweeping approach to the nation’s well being and financial crises.

Within the quick time period, he needs to go greater — “a hell of quite a bit greater,” he’s mentioned — in stimulating the economic system.

That would begin with a $1 trillion to $2 trillion aid invoice that may ship greater direct funds to taxpayers, improve unemployment advantages, restore a COVID-19 household depart provision that expired on the finish of the yr, and shore up struggling state and native governments.

In the long run, Biden needs to take large swipes at inequality and local weather change.

Earlier than the Georgia Senate outcomes got here in, the main target was on what the incoming administration may do by itself — rejoining the Paris local weather settlement and cancelling some pupil debt. Now, an entire new vista has opened.

All of a sudden in play is a plan to hike taxes on rich people and firms, producing an estimated $2.5 trillion in income over the following decade that could possibly be used to finance large new investments in infrastructure and clear vitality.

Austan Goolsbee, an economist who served as an outdoor adviser to the Biden marketing campaign, says there could possibly be substantial motion on baby care, too, after the pandemic compelled large numbers of women to drop out of the workforce and maintain their children.

“The entire area of kid care, I feel, goes to be a really stay one,” he says.

After which, there’s some under-the-radar laws that’s newly viable. Within the fall, the Democratic-controlled Home authorised money for school desegregation for the primary time in a long time, with some GOP help. Now, the measure has a shot within the Senate.

And that would change children’ lives.

Restoration

My very own children had been huddled on the sofa with my spouse, watching the mayhem unfold on TV.

I used to be standing alone; I used to be shaking and I didn’t need them to see.

Biden was speaking now, telling us “the scenes of chaos on the Capitol” don’t “symbolize who we’re.”

“The work of the second,” he continued, “and the work of the following 4 years have to be the restoration of democracy — of decency, honor, respect, the rule of regulation — simply plain, easy decency. The renewal of the politics that’s about fixing issues, looking for each other, not stoking the flames of hate and chaos.”

The Supreme Court docket seen by way of a damaged window a day after a pro-Trump mob broke into the Capitol.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP through Getty Photographs

His speak of unity sounded greater than slightly naive. The mob that stormed the Capitol won’t ever come round.

However as I watched, I noticed that its energy lay not in its aspiration to a pie-in-the-sky coming-together however in its capability to assuage.

To assuage these of us watching the spectacle unfold with our youngsters. These of us who want “plain, easy decency” within the White Home, at the very least, if not the entire of the nation. These of us who have to shake that feeling of dread and forge forward.

The lesson of this extraordinary week is that our divide is irreparable — however that there’s a method ahead nonetheless. A path to an ethical majority.

You possibly can see it taking form already. The marauders have left Capitol Hill. One thing new is coming.

David Scharfenberg will be reached at david.scharfenberg@globe.com. Observe him on Twitter @dscharfGlobe.

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