Prosecutions for Civil Rights Crimes Heal Nation
On June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers who came to the south to register Negro voters, were shot to death and their bodies were bulldozed 17 feet under an earthen dam. On Monday July 13, the trial of 80-year-old Edgar Ray Killen for the murder of the three civil rights workers began in Philadelphia with jury selection. Nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in the first half of the 20th century and seven presidents between 1890 and 1952 petitioned Congress to end lynching. But nothing got through the Senate. The Senate is now ready to officially express its remorse over the failure to outlaw lynching in the United States. Although decades too late, every prosecution, every apology and every effort intended to make amends for the past is a part of the healing of own our country. It is very difficult to demand other nations atone for their sins, when we have not atoned for our nation’s sins. The rest of the world is not oblivious to our history.
posted by YouthPlay Staff @ 2:19 PM
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