Pay Attention: The Staunch Return of Jim Crow

By: Lawrence Johnson | March 19, 2023

 Read more at https://theblacksphere.net/2023/03/return-of-jim-crow/

“For those of y’all that don’t know what the f**k is going on in the state of Mississippi; they are trying to pass a law to reinstate the Jim Crow laws.”

Recently I was talking with a co-worker, and he mentioned that something going on in Mississippi. “You know what’s going on over there, don’t you?” he said. “I don’t,” I replied. His next statement was completely unexpected. “They are tryin’ to bring back Jim Crow laws down there.”

Right then, I knew something was off. After all, if that were true it would be worldwide news. I mean, the world would literally be on fire. I remembered how the George Floyd riots in Minneapolis had in turn sparked riots in some parts here in Arizona- this would certainly be worse. Next, he shows me a video of a random, unnamed black woman on Facebook, declaring the “news” quoted above. “For all of you who are young,” she continues, “and don’t know what the Jim Crow laws are-look up the story of Emmett Till.”

Alright, that’s enough of that.

Of all the ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ floating around in the ‘metaverse,’ this should have been flagged immediately. That’s what they profess to do, right? Of course, this was a lie the left didn’t care about. This particular story is so full of mistruths, misinterpretations and revisionist history, it is a challenge just to know where to begin- so let’s start with Jim Crow and Emmett Till.

The term ‘Jim Crow’ was a societal elbow-in-the-ribs to the black populace, reminding them that their “place” as 2nd-class citizens would never change as far as some were concerned. In order to devalue the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Jim Crow laws were created to enforce racial segregation and the beratement of freed blacks, beginning in the late 1800’s, and ending with the start of the civil rights movement.

As for the Emmett Till reference, there is literally no connection between the two. Fourteen-year-old Emmett was lynched, murdered, and nearly beaten beyond recognition for the crime of flirting with a white woman. Though this horrific incident was one of the catalysts of the civil rights movement- it had nothing to do with Jim Crow.

Aside from the rhetoric and despite what has been said, at the heart of the concerns is not Mississippi itself, but rather the town of Jackson; or more specifically- House Bill 1020.

HB 1020 was designed to control Jackson’s crime rate by changing the way it has been managed. One of the ways it would accomplish this, was by adding new judges and removing the sole power to elect those magistrates from the hands of the people. With Jackson being more than 80% black, Democrats and their voters had all they needed to cry, you guessed it- racism.

Truth be told, Jacksonians had bigger fish to fry.

According to WLBT news in Jackson, this report, just two short years ago, reveals much about life in this city of 436,000:

“People are being killed at a higher rate per capita in the Capital City than any other major city in the U.S., according to a 3 On Your Side analysis of more than fifty municipalities across the country. With 153 killings thus far in 2021, the homicide rate for Jackson is 99.5 per 100,000 residents, a rate that blazes past Memphis, St. Louis, and Baltimore.

For this analysis, 3 On Your Side calculated per capita rates of killings for cities with a population of at least 130,000, including major ones like Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, and cities that had previously been ranked for high homicide rates, such as New Orleans and Baton Rouge.”

With this information in mind, Jackson’s leaders set out to change its quickly deteriorating status.

The purpose of HB 1020 was to ensure safety in ways current leadership had failed to accomplish. However, despite addendums made to the bill to appease concerns of overreach, Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba refused to admit that HB 1020 would succeed in either of its forms in areas where he himself had failed:

“The recent amendment to HB1020 still exists as an attack against black leadership. It is an effort

to strip one of the largest black communities in the nation of its voting rights, pick its leadership and deny the right to vote,” Lumumba continues. “This bill would make Mississippi a model for red states with blue capital cities. At its core, this bill is about lawmakers giving themselves the ability to outmaneuver the federal government. So, by policy or through actually preventing people to vote, it still reflects the poorest version of Mississippi. Lastly, the portion of the bill that suggests that the City of Jackson sign an MOU (memorandum of understanding) in ‘agreement’ with the CCID merely suggests legislators realize this bill is fraught with constitutional issues. Therefore, they want it cloaked as an agreement between the city and the state – as opposed to what it really is – a seizure of power over our City.”

Once again, those that seek to gain and/or hold on to power are willing to do so by any means necessary. As such, those feigning concern over racist policies and platforms employ the same in order to maintain control-even fearmongering.

Much like the early days of the KKK (and Jim Crow) when violent power grabs no longer achieved the goals, scare tactics like this video/narrative are used as a last resort. Both Booker T. Washington and Malcolm X understood better than most that the greatest challenges that faced the black community, even in their time, were those within the community itself.

No group in history has done more to ensure its own genocide than black people.

Though more than 100 years have passed, the adage still applies: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat.” Clearly Black America still has a lot to learn.