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, and FOX. Etc., Newspapers, and South Georgia 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, concerned citizens, 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 in Valdosta, and surrounding counties why they seem bent on keeping the people at Moody Air Force Base, Retired Military Veterans, Valdosta State University, Valdosta Technical College, 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. That consistently ignore news worthy events in the Black African American Community in Valdosta, and in other smaller counties in our area without any change in their sick practice.
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, during an extremely heavy down pour 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, but seem to have been intentionally ignored by people who refuses to face our real Southern Heritage that extends beyond the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy.
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, and 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 is 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}
