Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

2 The 21st Century-Making the Connection! MARCH 1999 MBC Wolverine OBSERVER Legal Studies Historical Spotlight Blacks and the Death Penalty First Place CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 in the Senior College Division of the yearbook competition. The two-day event, Febru ary 25-26, featured a host of workshops, seminars and networking activities for fu ture journalists. The opening remarks were made by Cable News Networks’ co-anchor, Leon Harris, who was also awarded the Louis R. Lautier Award for Career Achieve ment. Students from over 20 high schools, two-year and four-year colleges and uni versities participated in the event. Milton Coleman, Deputy Managing Editor of The Washington Post, gave the keynote address at the awards luncheon. Both Har ris and Coleman gave tips on how to succeed in the field of journalism and urged stu dents to consider journalism careers. Congratulations are ex tended to all participants who contributed to our success. By Juanita B. Hodges MBC LEGAL STUDIES MAJOR According to Stephen B. Bright, visiting lecture in Law at Harvard and Yale Law Schools, and director of the Southern Center for Human rights in Atlanta, the death penalty is a “direct descen dant of lynching and other forms of racial violence and oppression in America.” The death penalty is part of a criminal justice system which can be used to eliminate those society feels are useless, or who are seen as a threat to its social, economic and political existence...the majority of these people, however, are poor and black. The excuse used to justify the lynching of black men in the south up until the mid- 1900’s was the accusation that black men were rapists of white women. Walter White, author of “Rope and Lawyers CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 community, and in the black community as well. In fact, some of my well-intentioned colleagues here at Morris Brown, and at other institu tions of higher education have sometimes advised students not to go to law school... "because there are too many lawyers.” The state of Georgia is an example of the dearth of black lawyers throughout the na tion. There are 159 counties in Georgia, however, outside of a five-county Atlanta met ropolitan area, the approxi mate number of black lawyers in other locations in the state include: 20 in Savannah; 6 in Columbus; 3 in Griffin; 3 in Augusta, and 5 in Macon. A similar pattern exists in every state in the union. It is important, therefore, to carefully examine the facts regarding the presence of blacks in the legal profession before making important ca reer decisions. In this way we avoid many of the pitfalls and misconceptions of popular be liefs. Faggot” explains however, that this “alleged propensity” for sex crimes by African Americans was unheard of in the United States during slavery or prior to 1830. Ida B. Wells, a contemporary of Frederick Douglass, and leading 19 th century black anti-lynching advocate dem onstrated in her writings and lectures that the real reason for lynching was white fear and resentment of black edu cational and economic ad vancement. The next phase of lynching of blacks began after the Civil War, and the formal abolition of slavery as a result of the enactment of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Con stitution in 1865. The re moval of slavery as a forced labor system forced many white southerners fearful of blacks’ advancement to find ways to control skilled, free black labor in the market place. Stewart Tolnay’s “Festival of Violence” details how waves of black lynching peaked in periods of economic depression due to southern whites fears of competing with free black workers for jobs. To make matters worse, it was just one year after the 13 th Amendment was ratified, that white terrorist organiza tions such as the Knights of the White Camelia and the Ku Klux Klan came into exis tence. These groups also used lynching to instill fear in free African-Americans. These blatant public killings of blacks coupled with a lack of legal protection resulted in more that “two million” Afri can-Americans migrating north beginning in the 1890’s where northern whites greeted them with further mob lynching.” Following the 1908 riot in Spring, Illinois, the NAACP and other anti lynching proponents began to lobby Congress in 1921, 1935 and 1940 for an anti-lynching bill. This growing “debate and outcry led southern states to abandon the lynch ing rope”...and to replace lynching with another method of killing blacks who “despite the handicaps of ignorance, poverty and oppression were steadily adding to their wealth and education.” The new method of control was the “judgement and imposi tion of capital (death) sen tences on black defendants by all white juries.” Beginning in the 1920’s, the number of African-Americans killed as a result of court im posed death penalties ex ceeded the number killed an nually by lynching. In the 1930’s, all white juries con victed and sentenced more people to death than at any other time in American his tory. More than two-thirds of those condemned to death were poor, black defendants often represented by Hi- prepared court appointed at torneys. Whether or not an African- American is put to death in this country is heavily influ enced by the race of the vic tim. After an analysis of 28 studies of death penalty sen tencing, the U.S. General Ac counting Office reported in 1990 that the “race of the vic tim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death pen alty.” Those who murdered whites were found to be more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks. “African-Americans who are accused of killing whites are 19 times more likely to be executed than whites who kill African- Americans. This report came after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1971 decision in Fur man v. Georgia, where the Court acknowledged that the death penalty was “unconsti tutionally” applied to blacks. Afterwards, the Court rein stated the death penalty in 1976. In 1987 the Court con cluded in McCleskey v. Kemp that the victims of race and the imposition of the death penalty was “statistically” significant in the whole (criminal justice) system. Despite dramatic racial dis parities in death penalty cases, Congress in 1994 re fused to include the Racial Justice Act in the 1994 crime bill (which provides the death penalty for at least 60 of fenses). This Act would have CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE The MBC Wolverine OBSERVER Newspaper needs more advertising support from the business sector of metro Atlanta. When you advertise with the Wolverine OBSERVER you are advertising to our future business leaders and therefore your future buyers. The Morris Brown College Wolverine OBSERVER is Published Monthly by Morris Brown College, 643 Martin L. King Jr. Dr., NW, Atlanta, GA 30314-4140 (404) 220-0308 - (404) 220-0312. All contents are Copyright 1998, Morris Brown College Wolverine OB SERVER. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed by editors and contributing writers are not necessarily those of Morris Brown College or it’s Board of Trustees. The students of MBC Wolverine OBSERVER have the right and responsibility to report news of student interest, and to editorialize on issues of student relevance. The MBC Wolverine OBSERVER newspaper is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. All material will be considered for publication and must be typewritten double spaced, and contain the writer’s name, address, and telephone number for verification unless approved otherwise by the Director for Student Activities. Please en close a self-addressed, stamped envelope to guarantee return. Deadlines for articles or announcements is TWO weeks prior to the publication deadline (1 st week of the month). ADVERTISEMENTS: Deadline is at 3:00 p.m. during the prior week of publication - call for rate card. DISTRIBUTION: Free in the MBC campus community and metro-Atlanta. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Call for rate. Reproduction or use, without written permission, of editorial or graphic content in any manner is prohibited. Morris Brown College was founded in 1881 by leaders of the North Georgia Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It is the only institution of higher learning in the state of Georgia founded by African Americans. It is a private, coeduca tional Liberal Arts College engaged in teaching and research in the Arts, Humanities, and Social and natural Sciences. The Col lege IS A MEMBER OF THE ATLANTA UNIVERSITY CENTER (AUC), THE WORLD’S LARGEST CONSORTIUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS.