Preview

Lynching In Duluth Short Story

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
772 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Lynching In Duluth Short Story
Lynchings In Duluth Creative Writing I was woken up suddenly by my mother shaking me. “Come on Elmer”, she whispered, “we have to go!” Naturally, I was surprised and confused. “Where are we going mom”, I asked. “We are going downtown to partake in a little rally”, she responded. After a little more encouraging I eventually got up and began getting ready for the day. I came downstairs to see my sister, mom, and dad all waiting for me. They had all dressed as if this was a formal occasion, which I found odd, but disregarded it. We all piled into our 1917 Ford Model T and started the trek downtown. On our way, I saw lots of white people starting to fill the streets, yelling and holding signs that read things like “Lynch Those Blacks” or “What …show more content…
All types of white people were in this mob, white women, white children, and white men. We walked towards where the heart of the mob must have been, and through all of the commotion, I got separated from my family. “MOM”, I called out. “DAD”, I shouted even louder, though my voice was drowned out in the crowd. Over the noise of a thousand voices, I heard some say “those blacks deserve to die”, or “think about that poor girl”. I started to get scared, and pushed through the crowd, hoping that I would bump into my mom or dad. Unknowingly, though, I ended up in the front lines of the mob, in the front of the police station. I was handed a brick by a stranger and told “hey kid, throw this brick at that window”, while he pointed at one of the first floor windows. Eventually, I put together the pieces. All these people were yelling about lynching some blacks,and how a girl had been violated. I came to the conclusion that these black men had been arrested for raping a young white girl, and were being held at the police station jail. Upon coming to this realization, I dropped the brick in disgust. I was completely against killing anyone in cold blood, no matter what they had done. Overwhelmed by the angry energy of all these white men who towered over me, and losing my parents, I started to cry. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. I spun around as fast as a bolt of lightning, only to be relieved to see my dad standing there. He pulled my back, and right then the crowd seemed to surge forward. It seemed as if they had breached the defenses of the police and were now storming through the station. My dad pulled me over to the outskirts of the crowd, and witnessed that in no time the mob exited the station, with 3 black men in their
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    George Curry's Essay 'Calling Nooses What They Are: Terrorism'
    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages

    George Curry's Essay 'Calling Nooses What They Are: Terrorism'

    Since Mr. Curry is an African American male, he can personally identify with the main audience. In doing such, he appeals to nomos. Mr. Curry employs emotionally charged language to bring focus to the maleficent actions continuously occurring across the nation. However, Mr. Curry is also an editor, so he is cognizant on the ways to emotionally motivate people and/or call them to action. The writer uses his background to his advantage by citing multiple occasions where the lynching has taken place and the style in which he organizes his writing. The writer begins by defining lynching and introducing some background information on who it affects and how long it has taken place. He then moves into a more emotional state by citing the terrible things the African Americans are forced to endure on a daily basis. The author once again accentuates his point by providing a plethora of dates with examples of lynching. However, the author also applies these dates and intense diction to call attention to the evil that racist people are condoning and even playing a part in the lynching. Mr. Curry strategically crafts this essay to display the monstrosity that is the racist population, and to hopefully bring about an end to this terrorism. Not only is this a call to action, this is a call to end evil…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mob Lynches Negro In Court House Yard Summary
    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Mob Lynches Negro In Court House Yard Summary

    On April 18, 1931, Thomas, J Pressley witnessed a man hanging from a limb. The newspaper article title states ‘Mob Lynches Negro in Court House Yard”. It stated that the mob of whites’ march into the jailhouse took out George Smith a Negro and hang him from a tree. That is when Mr. Pressely saw him hanging. The reason he hung is that a white girl at that time stated that he came into her room and tried to attack her and she scratched him in his face. So, when he was found the white girl pointed him out as his assailant. Mr. Pressel sated this was his first time seeing a dead body or even someone being lynched.…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Blood Done Sign My Name Analysis
    • 112 Words
    • 1 Page

    Blood Done Sign My Name Analysis

    Thirty years after hearing a 10 year old playmate casually announce: "Daddy and Roger and 'em shot 'em a nigger," Tyson examines the racial conflict and riots that took place in the spring of 1970 in Oxford, North Carolina, while also looking at the culture that allowed such an event to take place and that allowed Robert and Roger Teel to be acquitted of both murder and manslaughter charges. The same tensions of racial conflict and desegregation that existed in Oxford were a reflection of those being felt throughout North Carolina and the rest of the South. Blood Done Sign My Name explores the motivation behind Marrow’s death and the riots afterwards.…

    • 112 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    William Tuttle Race Riot Book Report
    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages

    William Tuttle Race Riot Book Report

    This book review is on William Tuttle, Jr.’s Race Riot, which happened in Chicago in the Summer of 1919. William Tuttle is a graduate from Denison University in 1959. He obtained his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1967. He is a college professor and has taught at various institutions. He has had articles printed in various journals. He was a recipient of a fellowship and grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    On Lynchings Patricia Hill Collins Analysis
    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages

    On Lynchings Patricia Hill Collins Analysis

    In the article written by Patricia Hill Collins entitled “On Lynchings,” Collins describes the life of Ida B Wells through theoretical frameworks such as Black intellectual production and Black Feminist Thought. Collins situates Wells’ lived experience as a catalyst for her activism. “Ida Wells-Barnett’s voice in these essays grows from lived experience with Black people, and not simply from theorizing about them.” (182 Collins) Wells’ intellectual and political work, as told by Collins, involved the development of African American communities through a “racial uplift.” (176 Collins) Though Collins work focuses on Wells political achievement, at the same time, Collins expresses how narratives are silenced throughout the retelling of history especially the work from Black intellectuals in particular Wells.…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Police Brutality In A Lesson Before Dying
    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Police Brutality In A Lesson Before Dying

    But, because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time and that the witnesses saw he was black, they assumed that he killed these men. This took place in the 40’s, and it was when slavery was still a thing, black people didn’t have much freedom, and racially profiling was not addressed but it was surely there. This untitled photo relates to this book because police brutality is portrayed to be going off the walls, just like how slavery was really off the walls, and how much black people were put in jail. Angry. This relates to my book on a serious level. This book “A Lesson Before dying” conflicts so much anger from me and so much emotion from me. When I think of how blacks were treated back in the 40’s and before that, even after that, I feel angry. No one should be chained up and be treated unfairly. No one should be stripped of their freedom. When I look at this photograph is afflicts the same amount of anger, seeing a man chained to a truck holding a sign that questions the system, it makes me emotionally unstable. These two things, “A Lesson Before Dying.”, And this untitled photo is related by being able to afflict the same…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Just Mercy To Me Research Paper
    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Just Mercy To Me Research Paper

    “George Stinney, a fourteen-year-old black boy, was executed by the State of South Carolina on June 16, 1944” (Stevenson 157). George was arrested for the murder of two young white girls because he saw the day they were murdered. “The girls had approached them while they were playing outside and asked where they could find flowers” (Stevenson 157). It was claimed by the sheriff that George confessed to the murders although no signed statement was presented. His family was told to leave the town or else. Fourteen-year-old George was left alone to face an all-white jury that sentenced him to death. This was a young kid who was “Small even for his age” (Stevenson 158). This is wrong and “Years later, rumors surfaced that a white man from a prominent family confessed on his deathbed to killing the girls” (Stevenson 159). All because George was a young, poor, African American who did not have the proper representation to appeal the ruling, was dead 81 days after being approached by two young girls. This was the past and there are a few things we can do today to help those who are put in these kind of…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    back of the bus
    • 399 Words
    • 1 Page

    back of the bus

    The Southern town was moving quickly in the morning and the whites were coming to work. Mary and her sister Ester walked long miles to reach the bus stop, took this bus to head over across white downtown for music lessons. The three main areas on these buses were black's in the back, whites in the front and “ No-man's-land “ where whites would sit or blacks would. Mary and Ester go to the bus and sat at the back facing each other. That Saturday morning a lot of people were out reaching for the bus. A white man got on the bus, saw a empty seat in the black section and sat down. More people began to get on the bus at that point Mary was afraid because there was a black man sitting in the No-man's land section. Another white man go on and he wouldn’t sit the black man sitting wouldn’t get up either. The bus driver notice asked the white man to step back. “ these are the niggers seats “ said a women in rage. Even thought the driver threaten to take the man to the police station nothing happened there was no movement. The bus driver was driving fast and everyone was anxious to get off. The next stop was Main St, Mary and Ester got off. Mary had never been on a bus where black's had to get up and give up their seat to a white person. Therefore Mary also feared of having to give up her own seat. The bus in the black neighborhood were some form of relief to all blacks, no one…

    • 399 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Chicago Race Riot Research Paper
    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Chicago Race Riot Research Paper

    On July 27, 1919, a young African American boy named Eugene Williams swam past a popular public beach on Lake Michigan, in Chicago. He was stoned by several white men, knocked unconscious and drowned. His death was the incident that set off the bloodiest riot in Chicago’s history. When the local police were called to the scene, they refused to arrest the white man allegedly responsible. Rumors began to run throughout the city, this triggered the fight between gangs of African Americans and whites. Violence spread throughout the city, causing ,Over 23 blacks and 15 whites were killed, 500 more were injured and 1,000 blacks were left homeless (Shogan 96).…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Without Sanctuary: Lynching in America
    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Without Sanctuary: Lynching in America

    These photos show how dangerous it was to be an African American trying to become something during Jim Crow America. If you wanted to be anything more then a free slave you would be hunted down by the Ku Klux Klan and lynched. Although it was against the law, it seemed to have become socially acceptable because people were sending these pictures as postcards. Also, hangings were a spectacle. In many of the photos large groups of people crowed around to watch and stare at the bodies. These events were so open and public that even little girls attended them as seen in one of the photos. Most people that were in the pictures in the background and posing were whites. Even though while performing a lynching most people were masked, no one wore masks while going to look at one. This is because it was against the law and the people who preformed the lynchings didn’t want to be recognized since most of them were upstanding members of society, even police officers. It was not however, a bad thing to go see the aftermath of the lynching. This was because it was something many people were proud of. The notes on the postcards shoed that people were proud of this and that they wanted it to be seen. It is also seen in the pictures that not only were they hanged but burned, shot, and beaten. All of this shows how dangerous it was to be a minority, specifically African American during this time period when it wasn’t even safe to go to the police for…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Lynchings In The South Essay
    • 897 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Lynchings In The South Essay

    What were lynchings in the South, and how did the southern police deal with it? Lynching was a way to kill those who were not white and those who opposed white supremacist views. It was a means to kill someone (mostly by hanging) for an alleged offense with/ without a legal trial. The points that will be addressed include facts about lynching in the south, crimes that led to being lynched, and what southern police did about it.…

    • 897 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    College Admissions Essay: How My Father Changed My Life
    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages

    College Admissions Essay: How My Father Changed My Life

    Because of those startling events, I did not want to interact with other people physically or verbally. However, my father – although I hid my deepest fear from him – constantly exposed me to those stories anyway by turning on the world news on our television every evening that I came home from school. The effects that racism had on our nation was starting to become devastating for me to process. My father usually lectured me about how racism is everywhere, but people who can speak up against it can make others reconsider what they are doing about it. He would sometimes have me sit in his truck after school and discuss with me about what it meant to him to be a black man living in a world before I was born. The events of his past that he shared with me vividly were about how he dealt with racism. Even though those struggles in his life were disheartening, I never saw him cry or become frustrated at least once. What I saw from my father was pure content as he wanted me to learn that living outside my comfort zone is not a horrible…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Story Of The Barbed Fence
    • 141 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Story Of The Barbed Fence

    I believe the white families in this story were ignorant and lacking courage, which is why it ended so bitterly. They had a lovely house with a lovely, full family in a lovely neighborhood but the rumors of robberies became too much for them so they took action. The action being they barred up their windows so they couldn't see nature without steel in their way and they installed alarms they became accustomed to and they put up cement walls, ruining their fine tuned neighborhood. Last and most awful of all, the barbed fence caught their own boy and tore him apart. What was supposed to protect them was hurting them more than anything was before. If the families had courage to keep living life even when bad things happen the most precious things…

    • 141 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    An Act from Black Boy by Richard Wright
    • 356 Words
    • 2 Pages

    An Act from Black Boy by Richard Wright

    As I was reading the story I felt disgusted by the way the white people severely abused the black people. I felt awful after reading what happened to them during the 1930’s and 1940’s. I felt even worse knowing the fact that racism still exist today in some place. People are still judging people by the way they appear. I sometimes still hear rappers using the “N” word in their music. People do not realize how offensive the word can be. Even if you were colored it does not give you the right to use the word because there have been people in the past that have been abused by that word.…

    • 356 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    I Am Not Your Negro Analysis
    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages

    I Am Not Your Negro Analysis

    In the documentary “I am not Your Negro” directed by Raoul Peck, the most memorable moment for me is the section focuses on integration at American public school. It is difficult for me to believe that many people march on the street only because an African American girl is going to school with the white kids, and I feel really angry and shocked when people are saying things like “when a negro child walk into the school, all decent parents should take their white children out of the broken school”, or “God can forgive adultery, but he is angry about integration ”. Even though those comments and events can have a huge impact on social discrimination and hurt to African American, they are real things that happened in the American history, and…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics