Thread by @michaelharriot

There is a lot of speculation about what could happen it people like Kyle Rittenhouse are allowed to get away with murder. But, as usual, it's never "if" but "when"

A brief history of white vigilantes at Black protests.

A thread.

On July 8, 1874, the "leading white men" of Edgefield SC traveled to a protest in Hamburg SC and massacred any Black men who owned a gun.

Their plan was to "seize the first opportunity that the Negroes might offer them to provoke a riot and teach the Negroes a lesson."

Benjaimn "Pitchfork" Tillman, the white supremacist who led that riot became an instant celebrity.

So what happened to him?

Is it fair to call him a white supremacist?

Well, let's see what he said at his inauguration:

"I... am here to take the solemn oath of office ...

The triumph of democracy and white supremacy over mongrelism and anarchy, of civilization over barbarism, has been most complete"

In 1892, a Black kid and a white kid got into a fight over a game of marbles at People's Grocery, a Black-owned grocery store in Memphis. The clerks broke it up but William Barrett, the owner of a nearby white-owned grocery store wanted to put People's out of business.

He came back the next day with a sheriff and tried to arrest the clerk who broke it up. A fight ensued, Barrett pulled out his gun, but a clerk took Barrett's gun and whipped his ass.

The cops put out warrants for the grocers and Memphis' Black community knew what was coming.

When the cops tried to ambush the grocery store, the Black folk were ready. A shootout ensued and 3 Black men, including Thomas Moss, a postman and owner of People's Grocery, was arrested, even though he had nothing to do with it.

So what did the black folks do?

They grabbed their guns and surrounded the jail to prevent a lynching.

Memphis' cops deputized 75 men and dragged the Black men out of the jail to a railroad yard. They shot Calvin McDowell 4x in the face with holes as big as fists. They shot Will Stewart in the neck & back

Then they shot Thomas Moss, one of the owners of People's grocery. As he lay dying, Moss reportedly said: "Tell my people to go West, there is no justice for them here."

How do we know? Well, 1 of Moss' best friends wrote about it. She was mad AF, so they ran her out of town.

But she went on a crusade against lynching like no one had ever seen. In fact, she is one of the reasons we know so much data about lynching.

Her name was Ida B. Wells.

Nothing ever happened to the men responsible for the Lynching at People's Grocery.

In 1902, a white patient at the Black hospital in Tuskegee, Ala. revealed what he was doing in town. He had been paid by white men in Louisiana to murder Booker T. Washington because Teddy Roosevelt allowed Washington to do the unthinkable...

Eat dinner in the White House.

That's it.

That's the end of the story. He checked out, boarded the train and went home.

How could anyone stop him?

After all, the furor over the dinner inspired a famous poem that was printed in newspapers across the country.

In 1919, in Chicago, 17-year-old Eugene Williams was chilling on a raft in Lake Michigan when he crossed an imaginary segregation line. White people–men and women began throwing stones and Williams drowned.

Thus began the 1919 Chicago "Race Riot."

One of the interesting things is that the Chicago Commission on Race Relations' report said the protests wouldn't have turned violent if not for Irish gangs, who unleashed their fury.
One guy used the riots to become club manager of his gang & eventually gang president

Most people think he was involved because you could find him at the gang headquarters EVERY DAY. He was president of the gang who sparked the riots for 15 years, until he was elected state Senator and then mayor.

His name was Richard Daley

How about when Rosa Parks desegregated buses in Montgomery?

Except that's not what happened.

Claudette Colvin and at least 5 other Black women had already refused to sit in the Black area before Rosa's protests. THOSE women sued the city, including police chief W.A. Gayle

That is the ruling that legally ended segregation on Montgomery buses. In fact, MLK initially agreed to abide by the segregation laws until a Black woman–Alabama State Univ. professor Jo Ann Gibson Robinson typed up a flyer & called for a boycott.

But that STILL didn't end segregation. Why?

After the ruling, the Klan attacked a black teenager. Then snipers started shooting Black people getting off the bus, including a pregnant woman. Then they bombed 5 Black churches. Black people went back to sitting in the Black section

Because of white vigilantes, Montgomery Buses didn't truly desegregate until the 1970s

Speaking of buses, when Birmingham Public Safety commissioner Bull Connor organized a Klan attack on Freedom Riders in 1961?

Well, in Anniston, it wasn't just the Klan, it was just white pp.

Word spread that the Freedom Riders were gonna be in town so they firebombed the bus. How'd the white vigilantes know? Did they have a meeting?

Nope. They heard about the plan at church.

The attack in Anniston happened on Mothers Day.

It was planned, too.

Remember Selma?

Vigilantes shot and killed Viola Luizzo, a white woman volunteering with the Selma march.

One of the men in the car of the vigilantes who killed that woman also knew about the attack on the Freedom Riders

He also knew about the 1963 bombing of 16th St. Baptist

So we know the authorities could have stopped Viola Luizzo's death, the attack on the Freedom Riders and the deaths of 4 little girls at 16th St. Baptist.

How do I know?

Because the man in the car was an FBI informant named Gary Thomas Rowe.

Not only did they know, the FBI INTENTIONALLY refused to release the information about the white to local investigators.

This is the fate of

In Monroe, NC, a town with a population of 12,000, the Klan had 7,500 registered members, meaning nearly every white man in town was a member. In 1957, they attacked the home of Dr. Albert E. Perry, the local NAACP president because the NAACP was trying to integrate the pool.

The KKK wasn't ready.

When they arrived in a motorcade, Robert F. Williams & the Armed Black Guard were waiting behind sandbags piled in front of Perry's home. They had obtained a charter from the NRA, so the KKK finally left them alone and began focusing on Native Americans

And here is the interesting thing: Before any of this happened, the Black Armed Guard told the GOVERNOR what was going on. But he said the KKK had the right to do whatever they want?

So what happened to that governor who sided with the KKK?

He became the Secretary of Commerce

What happens to white vigilantes is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what happens to black people trying to defend themselves. So why don't they ever tell these stories?

It's not because they're embarrassing or because it makes white kids feel bad.

Robert F. Williams explains why.

And of course there will be people who say this

Well, besides the fact that it happened at a Black protest.

That’s EXACTLY what the lynchers in Memphis said.

That’s what Daley said.

That’s what J Edgar Hoover said.

That’s what the troopers in Selma said.

They will NEVER SAY it’s about race.

It’s an American tradition