Emmett Till

Faulkner Calls Lynching Test Of Man's Survival 

WILLIAM FAULKNER / Chicago Defender p.3 24sep1955

[See Mindfully.org note below]

Background on Emmett Till lynching: The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi - Look magazine 24jan1956

 

[DEFENDER] EDITOR'S NOTE: Mississippi born William Faulkner is one of the United States' most distinguished novelists. He was awarded the Nobel prize, highest in literature, in 1949 and received the Pulitzer prize this year for his novel "A Fable." Most of his work deals with the South and the Mississippi and the Intricate patterns of race relations in that area. "Go Down, Moses," 'Intruder in the Dust" and "Requiem For A Nun" all have Negroes as their central figures. "Intruder in the Dust" was filmed six years ago and starred Juano Hernandez as Lucas Beauchamp, a figure who appears in several of Faulkner's works. William Faulkner wrote the following story on his reaction to the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till of Chicago when he heard of the incident during his current visit to Rome, Italy. Faulkner supplied this story to the United Press.

ROME — (UP) — When will we learn that if one county in Mississippi is to survive it will be because all Mississippi survives? That if the state of Mississippi !survives, it will be because all America survives? And if America is to survive, the whole white race must survive first?

Because, the whole white race is only one-fourth of the earth's population of white and brown and yellow and black. So, when will we learn that the white man can no longer afford, he simply does not dare, to commit acts which the other three-fourths of the human race can challenge him Pet, not because the acts are themselves criminal but simply because the challengers and accusers of the acts are not white in pigment?

Not to speak of the other Aryan peoples who are already the Western world's enemies because of political ideologies Have we, the white Americans who can commit or condone such acts, forgotten already how only 15 years ago, what only the Japanese — A mere 80 million inhabitants of an island already insolvent and bankrupt — did to us?

How then can we hope to survive the next Pearl Harbor, if there should be one, with not only all peoples who are not white, but 'all peoples with political ideologies different from ours arrayed against us—after we have taught them (as we are doing) that when talk of freedom and liberty, we not only mean neither, we don't even mean security and justice and even the preservation of life for people whose pigmentation is not the same as ours. 

And not just the black people in Boer South Africa, but the black people in America too.

Because if we Americans are to survive, it will have to be because we choose and elect and defend to be first of all Americans to present to the world one homogeneous and unbroken front, whether of white Americans or black ones or purple or blue or' green.

Perhaps we will find out now whether we are to survive or not. Perhaps the purpose of this I sorry and tragic error committed in my native Mississippi by two white adults on an afflicted Negro child is to prove to us whether or not we deserve to survive.

Because if we in America have reached that point in our desperate culture when we must murder children, no matter for what reason or what color, we don't deserve to survive, and probably won't.

source of article and photo: microfilm

Mindfully.org note: These words of William Faulkner might well have been written today, for whites in the US have learned nothing and are still acting in the same way throughout the world. While there are some distinct differences between the two horrific events, today's Pearl Harbor is 9-11, one glaring similarity between the attack on Pearl Harbor and 9-11 was that the highest officials of the US had prior knowledge of the attacks and chose to allow them to happen in order to create an acceptance by US citizens of a declaration of war. More specifically, racism in the US comes in through the back door. The carnage continues in the much more subtle forms. African-Americans are generally worse off than 50 years ago. In a recent Wall Street Journal special report, an economist for Canada's national statistical agency stated that, "The U.S. and Britain appear to stand out as the least mobile societies among the rich countries studied." — [As Poor Gap Widens in the U.S., Class Mobility Stalls - Wall Street Journal 13may2005] Inner-city, underprivileged people are faced with simple choices in life — join the Army; work at Wal-Mart or McDonald's; or go to prison. Getting an education is all but as funding becomes unattainable for these young people. An African-American online ran an article stating that:

"Currently, more than 875,000 African Americans and 300,000 Latinos are incarcerated nationally; more than half of each group in state and federal prisons are serving time for a non-violent drug or property offense. One of every seven black males in the age group 25-29 is incarcerated on any given day, as well as 1 in 24 Hispanic males. While the overall figures for black and Latina women are lower, the number of women in prison has been rising at nearly double the rate for men since 1980."

Even the Wall Street Journal has tidbits of useful info now and then. It seems that the editors think that the concept of prisons as a deterrent to crime has gone a bit too far. [Arrested Development After Prison Boom, A Focus on Hurdles Faced by Ex-Cons - Wall Street Journal 24may2005] But Angela Davis put it into a straight forward perspective when she spoke in Oakland in July of 2003, when she asked the audience: Are Prisons Obsolete?

We ask: When will you wake up America? Hopefully quite soon. Because if you don't see that a paradigm shift is called for, you may not have the chance to decide what's to come. The decision will be made by default.

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