More about Brooks County Georgia and the Mary Turner Lynchings
copy and post:
http://www.maryturner.org/place.pdf
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Mary Turner Program, not news worthy in Valdosta, GA, May 16, 2009, Why? "The Mary Turner Lynching Program" Hahira, GA.
May 16, 2009
The TRUTH, about those who do RIGHT, and the TRUTH, about those who do WRONG, must be TOLD and EXPOSED, so we all can be FREE, as our GOD INTENDED it to BE....(G.B.R.) Take a look at "Brooks, Quitman, Valdosta, and Lowndes County Georgia Historical past.....and local news media!
====================================
1. When Valdosta Television Stations, News Media Outlets, and newspapers ignored the Commemoration Program held in Hahira Georgia on May 16, 2009, did they purposely hide a part of our Southern Heritage in the 21st Century?
2. We often speak of our Southern Heritage here in South Georgia. However, we omit the children of mixed blood that remains a secret here in the State of Georgia. The American people have learned much about the hidden secrets of President Thomas Jefferson, Senator Strong Thurman and countless other American Patriots that fathered black children, and these are believed to be only the peak of the pyramid.
3. While countless white parents have ignored their black children that were not aborted but truly ignored and forgotten, so much for the right to life issue and abortion.
Moreover perhaps Rev. Martin L. King Jr., words were right, and fits our present reality in that “no lie can live forever.” And that regardless of how mighty, mighty might be, in the end must yield to right.
4. So as local television stations, and newspapers ignored the Mary Turner Commemoration Program in Hahira on May 16, 2009 with over 300 people in attendance, and a 105 Vehicle Motorcade, escorted by the Hahira Police Department.
5. Then we the people must speak truth to power concerning black and white children of mixed blood that came down through the centuries. Therefore it is imperative that we recognize that as interracial marriages, and births increase in America, that we cannot move forward without facing the ugly truth of the past.
6. Yes, siblings could marry each other and produce children without knowing they have married their own sister or brother, or some other blood relative. I came to grips to this reality, while attending my own family reunion in Thomas County Georgia last year, in July 2008. Wherein, whites came to our family reunion and brought pictures of joint relatives of the past and acknowledged that they were blood relatives of mine, and produced documentation through courthouse records.
7. We can all speak of our Southern Heritage, but we cannot continue to bury our head in the sand like the legend concerning the ostrich bird, and continue the same old thoughtless game of the past.
8. It was our local television stations, and newspapers ignoring the Commemoration of the Historic Lynching of of Mary Turner and twelve other black citizens in Brooks and Lowndes County Georgia in May 1918, (Known as the Week of terror), that reminded me of last year’s family reunion experience.
9. I was once told that a parent who denies their own flesh, and blood would also deny God’s love, justice, freedom, and equality for all human beings. While at the same time, proclaiming to follow the great religions of the world, and count themselves among the moral majority.
10. Yet ignoring what the scriptures states, “love thy neighbor as you love yourself... and that yea shall know the truth, and the truth shall make and set you free.”
11. I pray that all rejected children of yesteryear, today, and tomorrow---will be better Christians than their parents were, and realize that freedom cannot come until truth comes. And when truth comes, falsehood must vanish, because falsehood is forever, a vanishing thing. God bless America and everybody else.
GEORGE BOSTON RHYNES
Retired United States Armed Forces Veteran
A concerned citizens and brother of all humanity!
The TRUTH, about those who do RIGHT, and the TRUTH, about those who do WRONG, must be TOLD and EXPOSED, so we all can be FREE, as our GOD INTENDED it to BE....(G.B.R.) Take a look at "Brooks, Quitman, Valdosta, and Lowndes County Georgia Historical past.....and local news media!
====================================
1. When Valdosta Television Stations, News Media Outlets, and newspapers ignored the Commemoration Program held in Hahira Georgia on May 16, 2009, did they purposely hide a part of our Southern Heritage in the 21st Century?
2. We often speak of our Southern Heritage here in South Georgia. However, we omit the children of mixed blood that remains a secret here in the State of Georgia. The American people have learned much about the hidden secrets of President Thomas Jefferson, Senator Strong Thurman and countless other American Patriots that fathered black children, and these are believed to be only the peak of the pyramid.
3. While countless white parents have ignored their black children that were not aborted but truly ignored and forgotten, so much for the right to life issue and abortion.
Moreover perhaps Rev. Martin L. King Jr., words were right, and fits our present reality in that “no lie can live forever.” And that regardless of how mighty, mighty might be, in the end must yield to right.
4. So as local television stations, and newspapers ignored the Mary Turner Commemoration Program in Hahira on May 16, 2009 with over 300 people in attendance, and a 105 Vehicle Motorcade, escorted by the Hahira Police Department.
5. Then we the people must speak truth to power concerning black and white children of mixed blood that came down through the centuries. Therefore it is imperative that we recognize that as interracial marriages, and births increase in America, that we cannot move forward without facing the ugly truth of the past.
6. Yes, siblings could marry each other and produce children without knowing they have married their own sister or brother, or some other blood relative. I came to grips to this reality, while attending my own family reunion in Thomas County Georgia last year, in July 2008. Wherein, whites came to our family reunion and brought pictures of joint relatives of the past and acknowledged that they were blood relatives of mine, and produced documentation through courthouse records.
7. We can all speak of our Southern Heritage, but we cannot continue to bury our head in the sand like the legend concerning the ostrich bird, and continue the same old thoughtless game of the past.
8. It was our local television stations, and newspapers ignoring the Commemoration of the Historic Lynching of of Mary Turner and twelve other black citizens in Brooks and Lowndes County Georgia in May 1918, (Known as the Week of terror), that reminded me of last year’s family reunion experience.
9. I was once told that a parent who denies their own flesh, and blood would also deny God’s love, justice, freedom, and equality for all human beings. While at the same time, proclaiming to follow the great religions of the world, and count themselves among the moral majority.
10. Yet ignoring what the scriptures states, “love thy neighbor as you love yourself... and that yea shall know the truth, and the truth shall make and set you free.”
11. I pray that all rejected children of yesteryear, today, and tomorrow---will be better Christians than their parents were, and realize that freedom cannot come until truth comes. And when truth comes, falsehood must vanish, because falsehood is forever, a vanishing thing. God bless America and everybody else.
GEORGE BOSTON RHYNES
Retired United States Armed Forces Veteran
A concerned citizens and brother of all humanity!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Mary Turner Lynching, and the Names of others murdered in Brooks, and Lowndes County Georgia in 1918...
Read and be informed:
YES! The truth must told and EXPOSED concerning these Black African Americans for whatever reason. They were murdered and never had their day in court. Their souls are crying out from beyond their grave until this very day. I hope that all people of goodwill seek healing and forgiveness for the good of all.
VICTIM #1. Mr. Will Head, Captured near Barney on Friday morning, May 17, 1938.
EXCUTION: (Lynched) A rope was “tied around his neck, he was compelled to climb a tree and jump from a limb, while the other end of the rope was securely fastened to another tree. His body was riddled with bullets and what remained was left hanging for all to see. Newspapers reported that hundreds of people from surrounding countries visited the grisly scene throughout the day on Saturday, May 18. (Ref. Savannah Morning News, May 19, 1918), Memphis Press, May 21, 1918), Atlanta constitution, May 19, 1918)
VICTIM #2. Will Thompson, Taken to Camp Ground Church between Morven and Barney and hanged there later Friday Night on May 17, 1918. (Lynched).
VICTIM #3. Julius Jones, Captured evening Friday, May 17,1918, (Lynched), Details sketchy, but he was hanged about daylight. His body was left hanging the entire day of Saturday.
VICTIM #4. Hayes Turner, captured, placed under arrest, and taken to the Brooks County Jail in Quitman. HANGED at the fork of the Morven and Barney Roads. His body was left hanging from Saturday night until Monday morning and hundreds of residents viewed the remains. On Monday his body was cut down and buried a few feet away.
VICTIM #5. Eugene Rice, HANGED Saturday afternoon at the Camp Ground Church between Morven and Barney.
VICTIM #6. Chine Riley, HANGED, The mob tied clay turpentine cups to his body and threw it in the Little River near Barney.
VICTIM #7. Simon Schuman was called out of his house near Berlin on the Moultrie Road and was not seen again.
VICTIM #8. Mary Turner, LYNCHED, on Saturday, CAPTURED, on Sunday afternoon and taken to Folsom’s Bridge over the Little River, just outside of Barney on the Brooks-Lowndes County border. At this location Mary Turner and her unborn child were killed in an especially barbaric and brutal manner. The MOB TIED HER ANKLES TOGETHER AND HANGED HER TO A TREE HEAD DOWN AND GASOLINE FROM AUTOMOBILES WAS POURED OVER HER. TURNER’S CLOTHING WAS BURNED OFF OF HER BODY. A member of the mob produced a sharp knife and her stomach was laid open; her unborn child fell to the ground. HUNDREDS OF BULLETS WERE THEN FIRED INTO TURNER UNTIL SHE WAS BARELY RECOGNIZABLE AS A HUMAN BEING. Both Turner and her child were buried about ten feet from the tree, the grave marked by a whiskey bottle with a cigar placed in the neck---but this episode stands out as being particularly gruesome. It is an indication that the mob would spare no person in exacting its revenge, even if it meant killing an unborn child.
VICTIM #9. The eight month old Fetus of Mary turner…More to come on this little one…..
VICTIM #10, UNIDENTIFIED: 1 of 3, Black men was taken from the Little River below Barney. Little was known of these individuals and it is unclear whether they were additional victims of the mob or the bodies of those already LYNCHED.
VICTIM #11, UNIDENTIFIED: 2 of 3, Black Men that was taken from the Little River.
VICTIM #12, UNIDENTIFIED: 3 of 3 Black Men that was taken from the Little River. Special Note: The NAACP’s investigator never learned their names and he could not locate the bodies when he visited the county in July, but known as additional victims of the mob as, the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth.
VICTIM #13. Sidney Johnson, the final confirmed victim of the mob violence, the thirteenth to die, was the man who actually shot the White Plantation owner Hampton Smith. After saying HE would not be taken alive and on Wednesday, May 22, Johnson was located in Valdosta at the home of John Bryant, a black man from whom Johnson asked food and assistance in escaping. Bryant gave Johnson something to eat, but quickly left his home to contact law enforcement officials.
After a short stand off the firing between police and Johnson ended. Johnson was filled with bullets and then the officers fired a few more shots into his body. SPECIAL NOTE: Walter White reported that the crowd “took the body, unsexed it with a sharp knife, [and] and threw the amputated parts into the street in front of the house.
The Mod then tied a rope around the dead man’s neck and attached the other end to the back of an automobile. The body was dragged down Patterson Street in Valdosta, Georgia and then on to Barney where the remains were put on exhibit. At the Camp Ground, located about halfway between Barney and Morven, the body was prepared for burning.
One newspaper reported that the corpse was “placed upon a flat pine stump and large quantities of wood piled around it, and the whole was then thoroughly saturated with oil.” Sidney Johnson was then burned until nothing but ashes remained.
SO NOW! When did ABC, NBC, CBS, and our South Georgia News Papers publish a story on these historical DEATHS? Why did they fail to cover the event on May 16, 2009, wherein 350 citizens participated a ceremony and memo ration service at the community center in Hahira? Then a 105-vehicle motorcade proceeded with Hahira Police escort to the Little River Bridge to a cross-dedicated to Mary Turner and the twelve Black African Americans.
WE MUST NEVER FORGET THE WHITE SLAVE OWNER OR HIS WIFE. HOWEVER THESE AMERICAN CITIZENS SHOULD HAVE HAD THEIR DAY IN A COURT OF LAW. MOREOVER THE PEOPLE GUILTY OF THESE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND AGAINST GOD MUST BE CONTINUED BY A GREATER POLICE BEYOND OUR STATE, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS.
My heart goes out to all VICTIMS on both sides of the BLACK AND WHITE divide--of this week of terror in Brooks, and Lowndes County Georgia in 1918. This posting is not complete but will be revisited SOON….
YES! The truth must told and EXPOSED concerning these Black African Americans for whatever reason. They were murdered and never had their day in court. Their souls are crying out from beyond their grave until this very day. I hope that all people of goodwill seek healing and forgiveness for the good of all.
VICTIM #1. Mr. Will Head, Captured near Barney on Friday morning, May 17, 1938.
EXCUTION: (Lynched) A rope was “tied around his neck, he was compelled to climb a tree and jump from a limb, while the other end of the rope was securely fastened to another tree. His body was riddled with bullets and what remained was left hanging for all to see. Newspapers reported that hundreds of people from surrounding countries visited the grisly scene throughout the day on Saturday, May 18. (Ref. Savannah Morning News, May 19, 1918), Memphis Press, May 21, 1918), Atlanta constitution, May 19, 1918)
VICTIM #2. Will Thompson, Taken to Camp Ground Church between Morven and Barney and hanged there later Friday Night on May 17, 1918. (Lynched).
VICTIM #3. Julius Jones, Captured evening Friday, May 17,1918, (Lynched), Details sketchy, but he was hanged about daylight. His body was left hanging the entire day of Saturday.
VICTIM #4. Hayes Turner, captured, placed under arrest, and taken to the Brooks County Jail in Quitman. HANGED at the fork of the Morven and Barney Roads. His body was left hanging from Saturday night until Monday morning and hundreds of residents viewed the remains. On Monday his body was cut down and buried a few feet away.
VICTIM #5. Eugene Rice, HANGED Saturday afternoon at the Camp Ground Church between Morven and Barney.
VICTIM #6. Chine Riley, HANGED, The mob tied clay turpentine cups to his body and threw it in the Little River near Barney.
VICTIM #7. Simon Schuman was called out of his house near Berlin on the Moultrie Road and was not seen again.
VICTIM #8. Mary Turner, LYNCHED, on Saturday, CAPTURED, on Sunday afternoon and taken to Folsom’s Bridge over the Little River, just outside of Barney on the Brooks-Lowndes County border. At this location Mary Turner and her unborn child were killed in an especially barbaric and brutal manner. The MOB TIED HER ANKLES TOGETHER AND HANGED HER TO A TREE HEAD DOWN AND GASOLINE FROM AUTOMOBILES WAS POURED OVER HER. TURNER’S CLOTHING WAS BURNED OFF OF HER BODY. A member of the mob produced a sharp knife and her stomach was laid open; her unborn child fell to the ground. HUNDREDS OF BULLETS WERE THEN FIRED INTO TURNER UNTIL SHE WAS BARELY RECOGNIZABLE AS A HUMAN BEING. Both Turner and her child were buried about ten feet from the tree, the grave marked by a whiskey bottle with a cigar placed in the neck---but this episode stands out as being particularly gruesome. It is an indication that the mob would spare no person in exacting its revenge, even if it meant killing an unborn child.
VICTIM #9. The eight month old Fetus of Mary turner…More to come on this little one…..
VICTIM #10, UNIDENTIFIED: 1 of 3, Black men was taken from the Little River below Barney. Little was known of these individuals and it is unclear whether they were additional victims of the mob or the bodies of those already LYNCHED.
VICTIM #11, UNIDENTIFIED: 2 of 3, Black Men that was taken from the Little River.
VICTIM #12, UNIDENTIFIED: 3 of 3 Black Men that was taken from the Little River. Special Note: The NAACP’s investigator never learned their names and he could not locate the bodies when he visited the county in July, but known as additional victims of the mob as, the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth.
VICTIM #13. Sidney Johnson, the final confirmed victim of the mob violence, the thirteenth to die, was the man who actually shot the White Plantation owner Hampton Smith. After saying HE would not be taken alive and on Wednesday, May 22, Johnson was located in Valdosta at the home of John Bryant, a black man from whom Johnson asked food and assistance in escaping. Bryant gave Johnson something to eat, but quickly left his home to contact law enforcement officials.
After a short stand off the firing between police and Johnson ended. Johnson was filled with bullets and then the officers fired a few more shots into his body. SPECIAL NOTE: Walter White reported that the crowd “took the body, unsexed it with a sharp knife, [and] and threw the amputated parts into the street in front of the house.
The Mod then tied a rope around the dead man’s neck and attached the other end to the back of an automobile. The body was dragged down Patterson Street in Valdosta, Georgia and then on to Barney where the remains were put on exhibit. At the Camp Ground, located about halfway between Barney and Morven, the body was prepared for burning.
One newspaper reported that the corpse was “placed upon a flat pine stump and large quantities of wood piled around it, and the whole was then thoroughly saturated with oil.” Sidney Johnson was then burned until nothing but ashes remained.
SO NOW! When did ABC, NBC, CBS, and our South Georgia News Papers publish a story on these historical DEATHS? Why did they fail to cover the event on May 16, 2009, wherein 350 citizens participated a ceremony and memo ration service at the community center in Hahira? Then a 105-vehicle motorcade proceeded with Hahira Police escort to the Little River Bridge to a cross-dedicated to Mary Turner and the twelve Black African Americans.
WE MUST NEVER FORGET THE WHITE SLAVE OWNER OR HIS WIFE. HOWEVER THESE AMERICAN CITIZENS SHOULD HAVE HAD THEIR DAY IN A COURT OF LAW. MOREOVER THE PEOPLE GUILTY OF THESE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND AGAINST GOD MUST BE CONTINUED BY A GREATER POLICE BEYOND OUR STATE, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS.
My heart goes out to all VICTIMS on both sides of the BLACK AND WHITE divide--of this week of terror in Brooks, and Lowndes County Georgia in 1918. This posting is not complete but will be revisited SOON….
Mary Turner's Lynching (1918) Commemoration Program Ignored by Local Television Stations and Newspapers, WHY? Take A Read...
May 21, 2009
A published rant in the Valdosta Daily Times on May 20, 2009, read “Shame on the professor at Valdosta State University (Mark George) for bringing up the past about lynching of blacks almost 90 years ago… (Mary Turner, and twelve other blacks) This community needs to be aware of what liberal professors are teaching our young adults.”
No! My republican friend, the shame and disappointment are on you, our local television stations ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX. Etc., Newspapers, South Georgia and Elected Officials for NOT reporting/participating in the commemoration program held in Hahira Community Center on Saturday May 16, 2009. It was indeed a historic day of reflection upon the upside down lynching of Mary Turner and twelve other blacks that were killed in what have become known the world over as “A Week of Terror” in Brooks and Lowndes County Georgia in May 1918.
Moreover, history records that Mary Turner the mother of two children was lynched at the age of 20, and her third child was ripped from her womb during her eighth month of pregnancy with a hog type pocketknife, with the head of the baby being crushed beneath the heel of a white mob member’s boot. And has been recorded in American and world history as the most brutal and barbaric acts ever committed in a civilized country.
So don’t ask Blacks and White right people to forget and move on, without first asking the Jews to forget the holocaust and move on. I am grateful to the many students both black and white, faculty members, from Valdosta State University, Professor Mark George of the VSU sociology programs, Tracy Woodard-Meyers, members of the Mary Turner Project, President of the SCLC, NAACP, (NAN), National Action Network, family members of Mary Turner, community activists, Hahira Police Department, friends, and others that participated in the Mary Turner Project and Commemoration Program held on May 16, 2009 in Hahira Georgia.
I comment the Valdosta Daily Times for publishing two informative articles prior to the event. But I was deeply saddened, ashamed and disappointed in our local television stations and other news media outlets for NOT reporting this historic event to the general public. We the people, must continually ask our local news media why they seem bent on keeping the people at Moody Air Force Base, Valdosta State University, Wild Adventure, Kenderlou Golf Course, and other citizens residing in Valdosta and Lowndes County deaf, dumb and blind to the times, and unprepared to make intelligent decisions based on facts.
For too long the truth about our southern heritage in Brooks, Lowndes County, and in other South Georgia communities have been buried beneath the rubbish pile like the legend concerning the ostrich bird---thanks in part to our local news media WHITEOUT machine.
So how could our local television stations, and news papers ignore over 300 people in attendance at a public commemoration program held at the Hahira Community Center, followed by a 105 vehicle motorcade of people of all races and nationalities, escorted by Hahira Police, that traveled west on U.S. Highway 122 through the City of Hahira, and on to the Little River Bridge to the official site where Mary Turners lynching took place in May 1918? Why would our local media ignore a cross being erected in her honor as citizens and relatives of Mary Turner spoke from the back of a pickup truck as people rejoiced, cried, and reflected upon the progress we had made as a community, state, and nation for the good of all humanity?
Yet our news media seems to have turned deaf ear to this historic event without apology to the citizens of our community. Even though people came from around the nation, and stood on this historic site in shock and awe, as we listened to the grandchildren, great grandchildren, uncles, aunts, and other relatives of Mary Turner. As they expressed their internal pain, and the pain of their relatives who tried to explain the horrible murders in Brooks and Lowndes County in 1918.
Mr. James Turner was one such family member from Brooks County that stepped up to the podium to speak but was too overwhelmed with emotions and memories of what his grand parents had told him as a child about these deaths, (Ms. Mary Turner, Mr. Willie Head, Mr. Will Thompson, Mr. Julius Jones, Mr. Hayes Turner husband of Mary Turner, Mr. Eugene Rice, Mr. Chine Riley, Mr. Simon Schuman, an eight month old Fetus of Mary turner, An Unidentified Black Male, An Unidentified Black Male, An Black Unidentified Black Male, (removed from Little River), and Sidney Johnson.)
So we are forever grateful to professor Mark George, and others now teaching our young adults at Valdosta State University to think outside the box of incarceration, and indoctrination. And we are even more thankful to our elders who passed this information down by word of mouth from generation to generation. In spite of the fact, that South Georgia Television Stations and other news media outlets pretended as if Mary Turner Commemoration Program in Hahira never took place on American soil. How sad?
However, it was truly a great and historic day that allowed Mary Turner’s family members, friends, and white right people a chance to release their internal pain, stress, and anxieties without hatred towards others that had been held within their lineage for nearly a century.
So we do not condemn professors who speak truth to power regardless of their political party affiliation or religious beliefs. Instead, we give thanks to all freedom fighters, organizations, courageous pastors, politicians from both political parties, independents and others that fought for us, and for the good of our beloved nation---before we knew what the fight was all about.
So it my humble prayer, that more white right people of good will who are the descendents of the perpetrators of these criminal acts would confess, as many whites did on May 16, 1009 and joined in the healing process of our community. This includes those in our local news media that have tried to ignore these HISTORIC, BRUTAL and BARBARIC acts that have been documented around the world as “A Week of Terror.” But we simply called Saturday’s event a day of reflection, healing, forgiveness, and moving on with the knowledge of the past so we can improve upon the future.
For people that are interested in reading more about “The Week of Terror,” there are many books and links available to the general public. I recommend “Before the Mayflower”, Chapter 11, page 294, “Your hands are full of blood,” by Lerone Bennett Jr., “Killing them by the Wholesale”, by Christopher C. Meyers, Tracy Woodard-Meyers”, A Lynching Rampage in South Georgia,” and the NAACP, Crisis Magazine, (1918), Walter White Investigator, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People entitled “The Work of a Mob.”
My IMAGINATION tells me---that a big screen movie will eventually be made about the lynching of Mary Turner during this week of terror in 1918, and it has been said, that “imagination is more important than knowledge.” (Albert Einstein)
Therefore, I encourage all television stations, newspaper editors, radio commentators, elected officials, religious leaders, politicians, and others NOT to be found on the wrong side of history. Once the cameras start rolling in Brooks, and Lowndes County Georgia, and the ostrich bird raises his or her head, and realize that the world did not STOP, simply because they buried their head beneath the sands of time like our local news media outlets. So let us all understand that truth, right, and justice will eventually win in the end, God Bless America, and everybody else.
GEORGE BOSTON RHYNES
Retired United States Armed Forces Military Veteran
President of Valdosta-Lowndes County Chapter of the NAACP
A concerned citizen and brother of all humanity
Two heads may be better than one but never forget which one belongs to you. {GBR}
A published rant in the Valdosta Daily Times on May 20, 2009, read “Shame on the professor at Valdosta State University (Mark George) for bringing up the past about lynching of blacks almost 90 years ago… (Mary Turner, and twelve other blacks) This community needs to be aware of what liberal professors are teaching our young adults.”
No! My republican friend, the shame and disappointment are on you, our local television stations ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX. Etc., Newspapers, South Georgia and Elected Officials for NOT reporting/participating in the commemoration program held in Hahira Community Center on Saturday May 16, 2009. It was indeed a historic day of reflection upon the upside down lynching of Mary Turner and twelve other blacks that were killed in what have become known the world over as “A Week of Terror” in Brooks and Lowndes County Georgia in May 1918.
Moreover, history records that Mary Turner the mother of two children was lynched at the age of 20, and her third child was ripped from her womb during her eighth month of pregnancy with a hog type pocketknife, with the head of the baby being crushed beneath the heel of a white mob member’s boot. And has been recorded in American and world history as the most brutal and barbaric acts ever committed in a civilized country.
So don’t ask Blacks and White right people to forget and move on, without first asking the Jews to forget the holocaust and move on. I am grateful to the many students both black and white, faculty members, from Valdosta State University, Professor Mark George of the VSU sociology programs, Tracy Woodard-Meyers, members of the Mary Turner Project, President of the SCLC, NAACP, (NAN), National Action Network, family members of Mary Turner, community activists, Hahira Police Department, friends, and others that participated in the Mary Turner Project and Commemoration Program held on May 16, 2009 in Hahira Georgia.
I comment the Valdosta Daily Times for publishing two informative articles prior to the event. But I was deeply saddened, ashamed and disappointed in our local television stations and other news media outlets for NOT reporting this historic event to the general public. We the people, must continually ask our local news media why they seem bent on keeping the people at Moody Air Force Base, Valdosta State University, Wild Adventure, Kenderlou Golf Course, and other citizens residing in Valdosta and Lowndes County deaf, dumb and blind to the times, and unprepared to make intelligent decisions based on facts.
For too long the truth about our southern heritage in Brooks, Lowndes County, and in other South Georgia communities have been buried beneath the rubbish pile like the legend concerning the ostrich bird---thanks in part to our local news media WHITEOUT machine.
So how could our local television stations, and news papers ignore over 300 people in attendance at a public commemoration program held at the Hahira Community Center, followed by a 105 vehicle motorcade of people of all races and nationalities, escorted by Hahira Police, that traveled west on U.S. Highway 122 through the City of Hahira, and on to the Little River Bridge to the official site where Mary Turners lynching took place in May 1918? Why would our local media ignore a cross being erected in her honor as citizens and relatives of Mary Turner spoke from the back of a pickup truck as people rejoiced, cried, and reflected upon the progress we had made as a community, state, and nation for the good of all humanity?
Yet our news media seems to have turned deaf ear to this historic event without apology to the citizens of our community. Even though people came from around the nation, and stood on this historic site in shock and awe, as we listened to the grandchildren, great grandchildren, uncles, aunts, and other relatives of Mary Turner. As they expressed their internal pain, and the pain of their relatives who tried to explain the horrible murders in Brooks and Lowndes County in 1918.
Mr. James Turner was one such family member from Brooks County that stepped up to the podium to speak but was too overwhelmed with emotions and memories of what his grand parents had told him as a child about these deaths, (Ms. Mary Turner, Mr. Willie Head, Mr. Will Thompson, Mr. Julius Jones, Mr. Hayes Turner husband of Mary Turner, Mr. Eugene Rice, Mr. Chine Riley, Mr. Simon Schuman, an eight month old Fetus of Mary turner, An Unidentified Black Male, An Unidentified Black Male, An Black Unidentified Black Male, (removed from Little River), and Sidney Johnson.)
So we are forever grateful to professor Mark George, and others now teaching our young adults at Valdosta State University to think outside the box of incarceration, and indoctrination. And we are even more thankful to our elders who passed this information down by word of mouth from generation to generation. In spite of the fact, that South Georgia Television Stations and other news media outlets pretended as if Mary Turner Commemoration Program in Hahira never took place on American soil. How sad?
However, it was truly a great and historic day that allowed Mary Turner’s family members, friends, and white right people a chance to release their internal pain, stress, and anxieties without hatred towards others that had been held within their lineage for nearly a century.
So we do not condemn professors who speak truth to power regardless of their political party affiliation or religious beliefs. Instead, we give thanks to all freedom fighters, organizations, courageous pastors, politicians from both political parties, independents and others that fought for us, and for the good of our beloved nation---before we knew what the fight was all about.
So it my humble prayer, that more white right people of good will who are the descendents of the perpetrators of these criminal acts would confess, as many whites did on May 16, 1009 and joined in the healing process of our community. This includes those in our local news media that have tried to ignore these HISTORIC, BRUTAL and BARBARIC acts that have been documented around the world as “A Week of Terror.” But we simply called Saturday’s event a day of reflection, healing, forgiveness, and moving on with the knowledge of the past so we can improve upon the future.
For people that are interested in reading more about “The Week of Terror,” there are many books and links available to the general public. I recommend “Before the Mayflower”, Chapter 11, page 294, “Your hands are full of blood,” by Lerone Bennett Jr., “Killing them by the Wholesale”, by Christopher C. Meyers, Tracy Woodard-Meyers”, A Lynching Rampage in South Georgia,” and the NAACP, Crisis Magazine, (1918), Walter White Investigator, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People entitled “The Work of a Mob.”
My IMAGINATION tells me---that a big screen movie will eventually be made about the lynching of Mary Turner during this week of terror in 1918, and it has been said, that “imagination is more important than knowledge.” (Albert Einstein)
Therefore, I encourage all television stations, newspaper editors, radio commentators, elected officials, religious leaders, politicians, and others NOT to be found on the wrong side of history. Once the cameras start rolling in Brooks, and Lowndes County Georgia, and the ostrich bird raises his or her head, and realize that the world did not STOP, simply because they buried their head beneath the sands of time like our local news media outlets. So let us all understand that truth, right, and justice will eventually win in the end, God Bless America, and everybody else.
GEORGE BOSTON RHYNES
Retired United States Armed Forces Military Veteran
President of Valdosta-Lowndes County Chapter of the NAACP
A concerned citizen and brother of all humanity
Two heads may be better than one but never forget which one belongs to you. {GBR}
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