The New Noose

IS THE GUN THE NEW NOOSE? Introduction

Charles Martin, William Steen, Mack Segars, Lacquan McDonald, Oscar Grant, and Corey Jones are all black, and all have either been killed by the noose of a lynch mob or the gun of a police officer. They are just six of the thousands of black men killed by the hands of a white man. Some have concluded that history is just repeating self when in actuality, history has never stopped. The black community is still trying combat oppression. There are still protestors but instead of being called a “civil –rights movement” it is now called the “Black Lives Matter” movement. As camera phones have become more popular, the killings of innocent blacks has gotten more attention. This research will assess how the noose

This act was performed using a noose, which is a rope with a loop and a knot. At one end of the rope would be the knot and loop and on the other end would be someone holding the remainder of the rope. During the lynchings the black person would have their hands tied and the noose would be placed over their neck. Then in a hang-man fashion their body would be hoisted up and the weight of their body would pull the slip-knot tightening the rope around their neck. The cause of death is usually suffocation but in some extreme cases the neck would actually snap causing the victim to die. One of the most forgotten individuals who conducted research on the noose and lynchings was Ida B. Wells Barnett.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett is a historical black figure often overlooked until recently (Green & Gabbidon, 2000). She investigated the ideas of the “unwritten law” and the “lynch law” (Green and Gabbidon, 2000). The “unwritten laws” were laws not written in any book or enforced by national government, but they were rules expressed by white supremacist to oppress the black community. According to Green and Gabbidon “The term lynch law [was] used to refer to the infliction of punishment by private and unauthorized citizens” (Green and Gabbidon,

In New Orleans there was a mob lynching in response to a shootout between officers Mora and Cantrelle along with two black men, Robert Charles and Leonard Pierce (Green and Gabbidon, 2000). Wells Barnett stated Charles and Pierce were victims of police brutality (Green and Gabbidon, 2000). Charles killed Officer Mora and Pierce was shot and taken into custody. Charles was a wanted man for fleeing the scene and that was when the lynch mob formed in New Orleans (Green and Gabbidon, 2000). It was a four day man-hunt before Charles was spotted and shot multiple times.

Comparing that scenario to today’s headlining stories of police brutality, one can suggest that the problem never went away. It was simply ignored until concrete proof surfaced to support the claim of police misconduct. The concrete proof needed was video footage, and thanks to modern technology and the age of camera phones, the idea police brutality against blacks has resurfaced. Though the proof needed to support the claim is now available, the brutal act police mistreatment has continued

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