4,743 faces. 4,743 names.
Between 1888 and 1968, 4,743 people faced the hangman's noose in a massive bloodbath orchestrated by people who claimed to be Christian. Although not all were black, 73% were, and most were in the South. Two were hanged in the very town where I was born.
150 were women, and at least three of those (Mary Turner, Josefa Segovia and Laura Nelson) were either pregnant or had given birth. And the faces of those who hanged them would sit proudly in the churches not long after.
As I am doing the research for a specific project, I am discovering a lot of ugly truths about the history of lynching in America. It is a history on which the church has been remarkably silent, preferring to leave in our past, believing that we've become more civilized (the blood of Trayvon Martin would, I am sure, argue against our being more civilized, but that's another matter).
I cannot reconcile with THIS church, cannot consider myself a part of THIS body. I know it doesn't recognize the face of the church today, but I cannot help but think that even though we did not perform these vile actions, we can be among those to help heal in the descendants of these victims who sit among us.
It's time for us to own the actions of our forbearers. And atone.
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