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One of the most memorable slogans of the 1968 civil rights movement was “I am a man.” This slogan was birthed by a collective of civil rights leaders at Clayborn Temple in Memphis, Tennessee in response to the American historical oppression of devaluing Black men, their labor and lives. These words were similarly situated almost 130 years earlier when slavery abolitionist George Bourne wrote a piece titled, “Slavery Illustrated in Its Effects Upon Woman and Domestic Society” with its most highlighted phrase, “Am I not a Woman and a Sister.”
The Bourne piece, published in 1837, highlighted the connections between the anti-slavery movement and global women’s rights movements, as white women like Sarah Grimke used anti-slavery language to address their own plight as women. The connections they drew then were highly controversial, and many anti-slavery institutions were split over the issue and connection of white women’s rights and enslaved Black Americans.
Ultimately, over time, white (non-Hispanic) women, in matters of justice, have received their full inalienable rights as citizens worthy of justice and protection. In 1955, Carolyn Bryant, a 21-year-old white woman in Money, Mississippi, accused a then 14-year-old Emmit Till of whistling and making physical and verbal sexual advances toward her. The interaction between Till and Bryant resulted in Till’s lynching by a Mississippi vigilante mob seeking to exert justice apart from law enforcement, who in the 1950s, rarely got involved in matters of race. Mamie Till, in an effort to show American horror, held an open casket funeral for her son.
In 2008, Carolyn Bryant stated that she had fabricated the encounter to her husband and others and was simply appalled that Till violated the appropriate social constructs of African-Americans and whites at that time. White women, in matters of justice, have always achieved the highest levels of protection from their men, institutions, law enforcement and our nation’s government. Black women often receive the contrast.
The social caste system in America undeniably begins with wealthy, and/or middle class white (non-Hispanic) men, and all other groups come after. Black women, along with their educational, medical, economic, emotional and legal needs under this caste system have traditionally fallen somewhere toward the bottom. The almost invisibility of Black women in the United States of America is rich in the cases of Recy Taylor, who was abducted and brutally raped by six armed white men in Alabama in the 1940s. Even though Taylor reported the crime, witnesses confirmed her story, and one of the men confessed, the men were not brought into custody or charged. Recy Taylor was victimized by her assailants, but re-victimized by her local law enforcement. This injustice speaks to the fear and mistrust of law enforcement that remains within the Black community today.
Dr. Elsie Scott says, “When the subject of the criminal justice system and its impact on the African-American community is discussed, the emphasis is usually placed on males.” Fast forward to 2020, the streets of many urban areas in the world were filled with people outraged about the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police. Persistent protests neared close to 30 days as social and civil unrest grew in response to a hurtful legacy of racism between Black people and police departments. George Floyd’s death wasn’t the first questionable death that gained national media attention, but it was the most elevated. Ahmaud Arbery’s death began the 2020 racial injustice movement, George Floyd’s death raised the temperature, yet, Breonna Taylor’s death almost slipped away.
Activist Tamika Mallory and the organization Until Freedom were relentless in keeping national media and moral attention in Louisville, Kentucky, for 26-year-old Breonna Taylor. Taylor’s case gained national media attention a couple of months after her death in March, even though she was killed before George Floyd. Finally on June 23, 2020, the Louisville Metro Police Department fired Brett Hankison and the department's internal investigation found that Hankison violated procedure when he fired 10 rounds into Breonna's apartment while executing a “no-knock” search warrant.
On September 23, 2020 a Kentucky grand jury indicted Hankison on three counts of wanton endangerment. Attorney General Daniel Cameron found that the other officers were "justified” in their use of force after having been fired upon by Kenneth Walker, Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend. Breonna has yet to receive justice in the American criminal legal system.
A couple of years earlier, Justine Damond, a white Australian born woman, was shot and killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by Somali born police officer Mohamed Noor on July 15, 2017. Justine called 911 earlier that night after hearing noises that sounded as if a woman was being raped, and was shot and killed as a result of that call. There was immediate local, national and global outrage against excessive use of force by Noor. Instant audacity against Noor ensued. Noor, a Black appearing man, felt “spooked” and/or “alarmed” when Justine Damond approached his squad car by slapping the window, and he fired a shot out of the police car window killing Damond.
The prosecutors in Damond’s case were vigilant, and sought second-degree murder charges that were later reduced to third degree murder, and Noor was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison. The court was open for public watch and prosecutor Amy Sweasy was quoted as asking Noor on the witness stand, “The whole blonde hair, pink T-shirt and all is a threat to you?” This was later clarified as Noor’s description of her, seemingly used to display the harmlessness of whiteness.
Among competing priorities in America, the matters of Black women and justice are perhaps the lowest on the totem pole in contrast to the immediate concern, care and outrage for the protection of white women and girls. Black women are undeniably devalued in our American criminal legal system. Black women’s bodies are both the most coveted and the most discarded. We’ve seen it all before, we’ve written poems and sung about it; but we have yet to equalize the importance of Black, female existence.
My sisters say it with me: I am a woman.
