Today, I participated in the 35th Martin Luther King day celebration in Lewisburg, West Virginia. The theme this year is "Our lives begin to end, the day we become silent about the things that matter." Which is a line from Dr. King's "I have a dream speech." There were many speakers, including our town Mayor, John Manchester, the pastor of one of our local churches, Larryette Ellis, and others. The organizes of the march fed everyone. There was a choir that sang wonderfully, and children from local elementary schools read their essays on Dr. King. Going along with the theme of the March, I want to speak up about injustice.
I'm sure a good deal of Americans know the names Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Philando Castile. All three were African Americans, and all three were murdered. The final sad similarity is that all three went without justice, because all three of their killers are free today. These are just three examples of African Americans going without justice. Sadly, we have here in West Virginia, a case that is very like these three examples. On the 21st of November 2016, James Means, a 15 year old African American male, was murdered on the streets of Charleston, WV. James was shot once in the chest, fell to the ground, got up to run away and was shot once in the back, by 62 year old, Caucasian William Pulliam, a man with a history of violence. After the shooting, Pulliam said "that's one more piece of trash off of the street." William Pulliam's trial is set to begin on January 29th of this year. I hope that West Virginia will give James Means the justice he deserves. I hope that we will not join the growing number of states that did not provide justice for African American victims of these crimes. It may have happened before, but this injustice needs to stop here and now. For more on the murder of James Means and the trial of William Pulliam, use any one of the the web sites listed below.
How did we get here, to a place, where the murder of African Americans, goes unpunished? I don't think I can say. What I can say is that I think we as a society, need to change the way we act and speak about other races and cultures. Having a school named after a Confederate General (Stonewall Jackson Middle school in West Virginia) or known KKK member (Nathan B. Forrest High School in Florida. The name has been changed) sends a confusing message to the students that go to that school. There are quite of few schools named after such men. Follow the mother Jones web address below for a map of such schools. What I can also say, is that there shouldn't be statues of Confederate soldiers or Confederate politicians outside of a graveyard, museum or battleground. These symbols make it look like the USA still supports these men and their cause, which is enslavement of the African American. These symbols send mixed messages to our populace, and we need to correct that message. These statues do speak of history yes, but they belong in a museum. There is ample American history that we can all celebrate. Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, Jesse Owens Olympic victory in Nazi Berlin, Audie Murphy the most decorated soldier in World War 2, Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier, the list goes on forever.
To paraphrase Clint Eastwood in "Heartbreak ridge", "when we start looking like a society that believes in racial equality and justice, soon we'll start feeling like a society that believes in racial equality and justice, and then we will start to behave like a society that believes in racial equality and justice."
http://wvmetronews.com/2016/12/01/two-revelations-in-james-means-slaying-case/
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/gazette_opinion/op_ed_commentaries/paula-kaufman-remembering-james-means-gazette/article_0109de1b-dc23-5892-86ab-8a75529de896.html
http://wvpublic.org/post/us-them-killing-james-means#stream/0
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/cops_and_courts/man-who-allegedly-shot-teenager-in-east-end-set-to/article_19f5767a-689e-51fe-92dd-af1219eae34e.html
http://wvmetronews.com/2017/11/22/anniversary-of-teens-death-focus-of-charleston-event/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/16/school-named-after-kkk-grand-wizard-to-be-renamed-finally/?utm_term=.3e21104f679e
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/public-schools-racist-confederate-names/
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