WEBVTT - The NAACP 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.280 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:16.159 and there's Chuck and Jerry's out there somewhere. Uh, and 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:21.040 this is stuff you should Know N double A CP edition. 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:25.279 That's right. I was thinking about this, well, I was researching, Chuck. 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:28.320 No one ever says N A A c P. I've 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:31.520 never heard anybody say everyone says N double A c P, 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:34.840 which I think kind of gives the whole thing, Uh, 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:38.839 kind of like a like an old friend kind of 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.239 feel to it, you know what I'm saying. Well, yeah, 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:44.519 I mean since you brought that up. Um, there have 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:49.519 been people questioning the name in modern times of National 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:53.640 Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and some people 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:57.360 have floated African Americans, so in in double A double 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:00.840 A I guess could be a way that you would 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.720 say that, but um, they this was I think from 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:08.039 two thousand seven, So the leader of the Double A 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:10.959 CP at the time, I think there's a there's so 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:15.600 much in the name, so much currency at this point. Yeah, 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:20.480 that switching it is kind of tough. And also, um, 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:23.200 he said, you know, we're kind of about the rights 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.240 of many kinds of people, UM, so we don't want 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.440 to just say African Americans. So yeah, and there's a 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:32.400 lot lots of lengthy articles, but it seemed to make sense. 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.720 And from actually what i've what I've read is the UM, 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.720 the double A CP is kind of in this lengthy 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:43.360 process of UM kind of reinventing itself or re establishing itself. 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:45.800 And it seems like one of the things that they 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.800 are starting to kind of go for is UM, especially 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.760 economic equality for all people. So that really kind of 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.160 jibes with you know this uh that it's almost like 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:58.880 they grew into the name finally now in the twenty 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:02.320 one century, which is surprising. It's kind of neat. Yeah, 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.760 it should be hot back in the old way back machine. 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:08.600 It's been a little while. We gotta put some air 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.680 in the tires first. But yes, did we get in 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.119 that thing at all last year? I don't think so, 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:17.720 which is surprising. You know, we should have been getting 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.360 that thing every day. Yeah, I know, and we totally didn't. 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:22.400 But okay, so here we go. We're getting in the 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:31.200 way back and all right, well we're gonna go back 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.960 to uh, let's go back to nineteen o nine. Who 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:38.200 might as well go back to when the organization was founded, 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:43.320 and the reason why was because, well, for lots of reasons, 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.560 but I think this sort of inciting incident was in 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:51.480 August of nineteen o eight when in Springfield, Illinois, there 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:55.760 were two gentlemen arrested on suspicion of rape and attempted 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:59.280 rape and murder, and the cops there were a little 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:02.560 afraid of what might happen because, as you will see 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:06.040 in this episode, there was a tendency for extra judicial 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:10.400 violence a k a. Lynchings to happen if people got 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.360 worked up. So they said, let's get these guys out 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:15.919 of here, let's take them to another town. The mob 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.679 of people show up and realized that they have been 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:23.040 moved and did not take kindly to that and rioted 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.400 in Springfield. Yeah. So, like as a result of this 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:30.840 this Springfield riot, there were like two thousand black residents 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:33.640 of Springfield, Illinois who were displaced. They just didn't have 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.080 homes anymore because they've been burned to the ground. Um. 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:41.320 Six people were murdered. Um. Two people were lynched. Two 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:44.120 innocent men were lynched basically as stand ins for the 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:47.240 two men that they had originally intended to lynch. Yeah, 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:51.160 sixteen people ended up UM losing their lives over those 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:55.200 three days, and nine black people UM, seven white people. 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:58.480 Five died from conflict with the state militia that was 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:01.720 called in in two white people died by suicide. And 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:06.160 for many many years up until I think semi recently, 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.720 the seven white people that died, those deaths were attributed 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.320 to UM to being killed by black people that were there, 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:16.480 and that is not the case. They were literally rewriting 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.719 history in that case. One of the other big things 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:24.080 about this too is UM aside from the fact that 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.920 it happened, and this was you know, these happened with 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:30.919 enough frequency like that it was a it was a 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:35.680 real problem. UM. But one of the other things about 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:40.080 these these you know, race riots or UM massacres of 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:42.839 black residents you know usually that evolved out of a 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:47.600 lynching UM, was that they went unpunished. UM. Oftentimes they 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:52.920 were uninvestigated. There just wasn't much, if anything done about them. 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:57.000 So the kind of UM it became clear that this 0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:59.960 is a larger issue was already very clear among the 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:04.760 African American community in the United States, but it UM 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:09.840 kind of caught the the attention of UM some connected 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:14.800 white um social justice activists who were working at the 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:18.679 time too, that's right. Uh So in nineteen o nine, 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.120 a man named W. E. B. Du Bois, which is 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.440 one of the great all time names if you've got 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:29.120 three initials and that's what you're gonna roll with in 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:31.760 Duba is a pretty killer name too. But he was 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:35.560 a humanities professor, he was a writer. Um, he was 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:39.400 the first African American to earn a doctorate degree from 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:43.159 a university in the United States, Harvard. That's right. He 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:46.920 got together with forty other social activists in New York 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.880 and uh, it was you know, it was it was 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:52.800 mixed races. It was a group of black people and 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:57.240 white people, mixed religions. There were Jewish people there. Um. 0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:59.760 That was described as a group of black and white activist, 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:03.080 Jews and Gentiles in the Library of Congress. And they 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.440 chose February twelve to get together because that was Abraham 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:10.480 Lincoln's birthday and that is where they established their first 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:14.760 charter as a group. Yeah. The first time they met, um, 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.680 they were not considered the n double a CP. It 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:20.800 wasn't until their second meeting the first time they called 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:24.600 themselves the National Negro Committee, and then in nineteen ten 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.240 when they met again, they said, well, let's call ourselves 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:30.160 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:32.800 the n double a CP was officially born, although they 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:37.359 consider the actual founding back in nineteen o nine, and 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:39.920 like you said, yeah, there was. It was multi racial, 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:45.440 multi ethnic, UM, and white people were involved because they 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:50.480 were very much concerned about the quality of life and 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:55.799 the um viability of getting ahead for African Americans in 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:59.520 in the United States at the time. And for UM 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.320 this organization to really kind of find its legs and 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:08.919 find its footing and survive, it's like crucial first few years. UM, 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:14.920 it needed very well connected, very wealthy white supporters, and 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:17.960 so there was an integration at the highest levels. And 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:21.240 then eventually within a few years it was kind of 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.040 like okay, it's it's you know, we it's time for 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:27.320 us to step back. We've we've established this thing UM 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:31.119 and and it can kind of go indefinitely from here. Yeah. 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:32.960 So getting back to that charter, I think it's the 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.040 words are pretty important. It said it was to promote 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:40.640 equality of rights and eradicate cast or race prejudice among 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.680 citizens in the United States. To advance the interest of 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:47.760 colored citizens, to secure for them impartial suffrage, and to 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:52.000 increase their opportunities for securing justice in the courts, education 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:56.520 for their children, employment according to their ability, and complete 0:07:56.520 --> 0:08:00.280 equality before the law. And I think it's pretty import 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.960 and because it really kind of laid the groundwork for 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:05.400 what UM. I mean, you know, there have been all 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.240 sorts of activist groups over the years in the African 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:12.760 American community, and there's was always sort of about let's 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:16.560 attack this in the courts, and let's attack it from 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:21.600 let's attack these systems in the courts that are you know, 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:24.400 where the cards are so stacked against us by law, 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.680 and let's get some of these laws overturned. Yeah, and 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:30.640 that was I mean, that's still been their strategy basically 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.480 throughout it was. It was the strategy from the beginning 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.000 and it still is today, which is UM and not 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:41.079 an opposition, but it's it's complementary to other strategies like 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:45.120 direct action, which is like UM, you know, going to 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:50.080 UH counter and sitting in and protest to segregated lunch 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.080 counter or not giving your seat up on a bus. UM. 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:55.720 And you know, during the civil rights ares, we'll see 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.840 like the n Double A c P had an involvement 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:00.800 direct action, but it's always been known as like this 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:05.800 like just shooting for the biggest trophies of all, you know, 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:11.600 like change, fundamental change at the national level legislatively. Um, 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:13.680 that's what they've always kind of been about, the Double 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.840 A CP. Yeah. So some of these, uh, some of 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.240 the folks in the very first group, um, the first 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:25.040 president was a constitutional lawyer named Moore Field story great man. 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.920 There was a woman named Florence Kelly who was also 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:32.520 an attorney who worked a lot in uh an employment reform. 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:34.840 Do you remember her from the Francis Perkins episode. She 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:39.560 was the woman who inspired Francis Perkins. Yeah, she is great. 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.440 Who else? Uh, Well, they were you know, they needed 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:45.360 to um make some way in the press. That was 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:47.720 sort of one of the big problems at the time 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.480 is you know, lynchings weren't being covered in the press. 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:53.280 A lot of their rights that were being trampled on 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:56.480 weren't covered in the mainstream press. So they had a 0:09:56.480 --> 0:10:01.199 good group of writers, um essayist, journe list that would 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:03.440 get in there and they would, you know, they would 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:05.720 they founded their own paper, which was huge. The crisis 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:09.480 which is still around today their magazine, but mainly just 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:14.760 trying to get recognized in mainstream newspapers with their work. Yeah. Again, 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.040 some of the early supporters and UM people who were 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:22.360 founding members had big time connections in the press, like 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:26.240 one guy Oswald Garrison Villard. He was the publisher of 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:30.199 the New York Evening Post and the Nation magazine, so 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.559 he could very easily get stories about things like lynchings 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:40.040 into his his paper and his magazine UM, where other 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:42.960 other places wouldn't print that kind of stuff. And then yeah, 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.320 as the subscribership of the Crisis Crew, UM had a 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.760 bigger and bigger impact. So yeah, kind of part and parcel. 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:53.960 It seemed like with this legislative action was generating public 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:56.199 support through the press. It's kind of like this two 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:59.360 pronged approach. All right, should we take a little pause 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:03.240 for the cause. Yeah, alright, we're gonna take a break 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:04.840 and be right back to talk about some of their 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:32.640 early successes right after this. So if you look at 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:35.480 some of the early successes in the first part of 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.079 the twentieth century, one of the big ones you can 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:42.800 point to is in Oklahoma in nineteen ten, where they 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:47.040 had a state regulation, uh that limited the rights of 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:51.560 black citizens to vote. It was a grandfather clause basically 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.160 where they said, you need and I think we talked 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:57.360 about this in the Voter Suppression EPP. But um, you 0:11:57.400 --> 0:11:59.120 need to be able to pass a literacy tests and 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:04.240 order to be eligible to vote unless you had a 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:09.160 grandfather who voted in eighteen sixty six. And side note, 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.920 this is before black people were allowed to vote in Oklahoma. 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:15.199 So they basically were saying, if you're illiterate and you're white, 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.240 you can vote. If you're illiterate and you're black, you can't. Yeah, 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.839 that Oklahoma law was particularly agreed to say. It was 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:22.839 one of I think like seven or eight states that 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:27.800 had a grandfather clause. But Oklahomas said, um, not only 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:30.400 if your grandfather could vote in eighteen sixty six, if 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:33.240 he lived in another country in eighteen sixty six and 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:35.520 would have been eligible to vote or could vote in 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:40.400 that country, you your grandfathered in. So basically, as long 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:43.160 as you weren't black, you could you could vote, even 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:45.600 if you were illiterate. So UM, the n double a 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:49.040 CP filed suit against this um in a very famous 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:53.120 case called Gwyn versus the US. UM and Gwyn was 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.400 named after Frank gwyn And who, along with J. J. Bale, 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.960 where a couple of elections officers who had who had 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:05.160 basically been charged with disenfranchising black voters through the grandfather clause. 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:07.840 And the Supreme Court heard this and said, you know 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.520 what this is. Uh, this n Double A CP group. 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:13.760 I've not heard of them before, but they present a 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:16.000 pretty good case. So we're going to go ahead and 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.760 overturn this grandfather clause. And you know, this is nineteen fifteen. 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:21.959 The Double A CP had only met for the very 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.240 first time six years before, and all of a sudden 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:29.280 they're overturning UM race based discrimination laws about voting at 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:31.880 the Supreme Court. And that definitely caught the attention of 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:36.760 people in the civil rights UM community for sure. Yeah. 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:38.880 That's why. I mean, it's when you look back through history, 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:42.960 this the state's rights argument that we still here today 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:46.560 is such a tricky thing because you know, states should 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:49.200 be allowed to do a lot of things as they 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:54.000 see fit, but you can't you can't disenfranchise voters, willfully 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:57.960 disenfranchise voters, Uh, And that's when the federal government comes 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:00.559 in and people start crying foul that they want to 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:03.800 be able to run their elections their way, which means 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:06.080 we don't want black people to vote, and you just 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:08.400 can't do that. You know. I've been thinking about this 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:12.600 recently since we did our Clan episode, because I noticed 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.520 that every time the clan went away, it was after 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.320 the federal government intervened because the states wouldn't write. And 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:22.240 something I came up with, like just a good rule 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:25.040 of thumb or a good litmus test, is does this 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:29.120 law discriminate against anybody's right anybody? It doesn't matter what 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:30.840 group it is. Forget the group, take the group out 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:34.120 of it. Is it a discriminatory law? And I cannot 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:38.720 think of a single instance where a discriminatory law would 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:43.479 be beneficial for the greater good of of the country 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.680 um or for the health of the of democracy. I 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:52.400 just I can't think of one. Um unless you're you're discriminating, 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:57.240 discriminating against somebody's right to discriminate against somebody, maybe that 0:14:57.280 --> 0:14:58.960 would be the case. But that seemed to be a 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:00.640 pretty good rule of thumb to me that I just 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:03.280 came up with, does the law discriminate yes, well, then 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:11.080 it's probably a pretty bad law. Hey, Josh, Yeah, that's 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:13.160 about how far into the future, I should try my 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:19.640 hand and what is that but years that I I 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:22.640 don't know, but we're all just basically whisps of ones 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:26.600 and zeros. I think by then. Another big thing that 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:29.880 kind of happened early on it was we talked about 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:34.360 Birth of the Nation in our episode on the Clan, 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:38.560 and they in Double A CP got together and they said, 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:42.520 let's boycott this terrible movie. And the boycott didn't do 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:45.560 a lot in terms of shutting anything down in terms 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:47.840 of Birth of a Nation, but it did draw them 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:52.120 some finally some mainstream publicity, and um got them written 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:56.560 up in newspapers at least, right, So, I mean they 0:15:56.600 --> 0:16:02.040 had some early successes, um, and especially with overturning the 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:06.200 grandfather clause. But I don't know if it was after 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:09.440 this or around this time they really kind of redoubled 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:13.560 their efforts back onto the original intention, which was to 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.360 do something about lynching, to get an anti leg anti 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:21.680 lynching law, national federal law passed in the United States. 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:26.920 And UM, what's crazy is that that still hasn't happened, 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:31.240 and that is recently, is June of we we failed 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:35.040 to do it yet again, um, which is just nuts 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:38.120 to me. But the the n double A cp UM 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:42.000 was really trying to get this to get legislation passed. 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:44.640 You know, even back then it just made sense. Now 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:47.280 today it's just shameful that we don't have something. But 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:50.000 the thing that kind of redoubled or refocused the double 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:54.520 A CPS efforts on UM anti lynching legislation was the 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.680 lynching of a teenager named Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:01.680 in nineteen sixteen. And even as far as lynchings go, 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:06.800 this was particularly gruesome. Yeah. I mean, not only was 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:11.880 the act gruesome, which was he was tortured, um, hanged, 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:16.119 set on fire, uh and beaten, but it was in 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:20.960 front of oh. Estimates range from eight to seventeen thousand 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:26.000 people like basically the size of a small, you know, 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:31.120 hockey arena, medium, medium sized hockey arena. You're like, I'm 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:34.399 not going above medium. Well, I'm trying to think these days, 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:37.680 how much does like your average NBA hockey arena. Hold, 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:41.679 it's more like, how I don't I'm such a terrible 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:44.840 judge of anything like that. So well, let's just say 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:47.480 a medium sized hockey arena. I think they got it across. 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:49.840 And the only reason I'm saying that is because it's 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:52.240 if you try and if you go to a pro 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:54.679 sports game or a big concert, try to imagine that 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:59.080 many people gathered together to watch a man, a human 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.280 being beat burned and hanged in front of your face. 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:06.679 And I tried to put myself in the not in 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.280 the mindset, but out of all those people, like how 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:15.600 many of those fifteen thousand people were fully charged do this? 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:18.439 Do this? And how many as it happened, were like, 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:22.880 my god, what is happened to us as human beings 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:27.000 and Americans? Were there any people there that regretted what 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.600 was going on? I'm sure some, And if they didn't 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:33.720 regretted during they I'm sure some regretted it afterward. But 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:36.680 I think one of the things that made Jesse Washington's 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:40.000 lynching so disturbing to the rest of the nation was 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:42.840 that it was reported that there was a carnival like 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:47.320 atmosphere where people were enjoying themselves and enjoying their time, 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:51.080 gathered together with Um all the other residents of Waco 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:55.760 and and lynching this this teenager. UM and the n 0:18:55.800 --> 0:19:00.280 double a c P sent an investigator there to to 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:04.080 basically document the whole thing, and she came back with 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:08.280 this report that became something called the UM the Horror 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:12.000 of Waco or the Waco Horror and UM the n 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:15.520 double A CP said we're going to we're gonna get 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:17.520 this out there. We're gonna tell the world about this, 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.680 and they definitely did, and it had a really big impact. 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:23.359 You know, what it reminds me of is is the 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:25.080 only thing I can compare it to these days is 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:29.639 when a UM, a high profile death row inmate is 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:35.639 executed and outside the prison they have those parties and stuff. Uh. 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:38.879 You know, I don't want to wait into the capital 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.880 punishment debate here, but there's something about that blood lust 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:47.520 that just feels really gross to me. Yeah, and that's 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:50.840 my official statement. You're talking about somebody's life and vengeance. 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:55.560 Anytime vengeance is driving things, it's usually time to take 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.119 a pause and reflect on what you're doing. You know, 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:05.960 I've got all the rules of coming out today, Josh. Yeah. Um. 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:09.920 So yeah, So they put out these pictures, like you said, Um, 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:15.280 we're covered in mainstream newspapers in you know, I think 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:20.399 it shocked the country. Um, obviously not enough, but it 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:22.159 was a big wake up call. I think to a 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:25.159 lot of people. What happened in Waco and the end 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.879 in double a CP was able to UM to really 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:32.720 pivot on this and bring up something like the Dire Bill, 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:35.760 which I think was the first piece of anti lynching 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:42.240 legislation UM sponsored by Leonidas another great name, Leonidas Dire, 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:47.720 Republican Congressman from Missouri, UM that died in the Senate. 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.320 I think it passed the House in two and then 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:56.200 died in a Senate after a filibuster from the Southern Democrats, Yes, 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:59.199 the Dixiecrats UM. And that was just the first of 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:03.080 many many ato. Yeah, apparently over like by the middle 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:07.040 of the century, there were two hundred anti lynching bills 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:09.960 that were introduced and died in Congress just by the 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:13.160 mid century. And like I was saying, as recently as 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:17.359 m June of there was a h anti lynching law 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:24.439 that was that passed the Senate unanimously one zero, and 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:27.840 then it went over to the House where it passed 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:34.719 four hundred and fifteen four and ten to four. Then 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:37.600 the only thing the House did was changed the name 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.840 to the Emmett Till Anti Lynching Law, which means then 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:42.280 it had to go back to the Senate to be 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:45.120 passed again. Because that one change has had been made, 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:47.440 the name had been changed, and when it got back 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:50.280 to the Senate, Ran Paul from Kentucky said, I don't 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:52.520 feel good about this, even though he was part of 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:56.119 the unanimous Senate that had passed it unanimously just before, 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:00.399 and no other change was made except for the name. Um, 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:02.600 and that really ticked a lot of people off. But 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:06.040 still to this day that law was blocked and the 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:09.720 United States still does not have a law that makes 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:14.600 lynching a federal crime. Yeah, so if you want to, 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:17.000 I mean, this was really big news. Um. So I'm 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:19.240 sure a lot of people know about this, But if 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:24.159 you're curious about Ran Paul's defense was he said, quote, 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:27.320 this bill would cheapen the meaning of lynching by defining 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:30.280 it so broadly as to include a minor bruise or abrasion. 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:34.800 Our national history of Rachiel terrorism demands much more serious 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:39.879 than seriousness than that. So what he was contending was, uh, 0:22:40.000 --> 0:22:44.359 he wanted he wants the language changed, um, because in 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:47.760 the language now it says the standard in federal hate 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:53.080 crimes is serious or I'm sorry, is um bodily injury. 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:56.080 And I think he wants it changed to serious bodily injury. 0:22:56.920 --> 0:23:00.240 In other words, if someone gets punched in the ace, 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:03.560 it would be called and considered a lynching in the 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:06.600 way it's written now. And he said there should be 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:10.920 substantial risk of death and extreme physical pain in order 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:14.240 to qualify as lynching. Otherwise, he said, it disrespects what 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:19.960 real lynchings were. Uh, so take that for what it is, Um, 0:23:20.760 --> 0:23:24.840 for what it's worth. The Senate formally apologized in two 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:29.800 thousand five for failing to outlaw lynching. So they apologize 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:33.840 into thousand five, and still it hasn't been put forward 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:38.120 on the books. Yeah. So, UM, the like we said, 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:41.160 the the n double a c p UM for decades 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:44.399 and decades leading up to the Civil rights era, UM 0:23:44.760 --> 0:23:49.800 was very much, uh focused on preventing lynching, on getting 0:23:49.880 --> 0:23:53.359 lynching outlawed. I'm bringing attention to the huge, massive issue 0:23:53.359 --> 0:23:56.880 of lynching in the United States. UM. They had a 0:23:56.920 --> 0:24:00.080 flag that they would unfurl outside of their headquarters in 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:03.560 New York whenever, UM a lynching was reported, and it 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:07.040 just said a man was lynched yesterday, UM, which I 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:09.560 read it. Yeah, I read it, and I was like, wow, 0:24:09.600 --> 0:24:11.000 that's you know, that must have been something that I 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:12.600 saw a picture of it and it's one of those 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:15.000 ones where a picture is worth a thousand words, Like 0:24:15.080 --> 0:24:17.520 don't you see it? It really drives home what they 0:24:17.520 --> 0:24:22.320 were doing, um and really kind of makes you really 0:24:22.359 --> 0:24:23.879 like the n double a C P. Like, yeah, go 0:24:23.960 --> 0:24:27.520 get them, you know, let's get lynching outlawed. Yeah. I 0:24:27.520 --> 0:24:30.520 mean you talked about the numbers over that time period. 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:34.640 The four thousand plus comes out to uh more than 0:24:34.680 --> 0:24:37.119 one lynching a week in the United States over that 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:41.680 period that was like verified, known and reported, so clearly 0:24:41.840 --> 0:24:44.680 you know, probably more than that. Um. So yeah, this 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:48.160