Dec 25, 2009

The Souls of Black Folk | Compare and Contrast

1900: At least two thousand blacks are lynched or burned to death in the fifteen years prior to the turn of the century. White murderers go unpunished.

Today: Racially motivated hate crimes are a rarity, but still exist, as in the case of James Byrd, Jr. In 1998, three white men drag Byrd behind their car, resulting in Byrd's death. The men who committed the crime are convicted and sentenced to death.
1896: In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of...