Blog #10

The Civil War, then end of slavery, but not of Racism

Are you aware that racism against black people still goes on today? Racism against black people has been an ongoing problem in America for the past 300 years. An area that is partially open to racism is in the court room. For years racist juries have held unfair trials to blacks. There are many instances of this racism issue especially in court rooms. The first Supreme Court case dealing with a slave was unfair. This case happened before the end of the civil war, but in a free state. That was the case known as the Dred Scott case which I will discuss about that later. Even though the civil war was the end of slavery, it was not the end of racial injustice of black people that still persists in today’s society.

The Dred Scott Case was a very unfair trial. As I stated earlier this case was fought between Dred Scott and his deceased owner’s sister. Dred Scott tried to sue for his freedom but in attempt failed because of multiple issues. The court's holding was that property cannot sue. The holding also stated that being a slave, free or not, they were not considered citizens of the United States and there for could not file a lawsuit of any kind. In this trial the judges saw Dred Scott as property, not a person at all. This is a classic example of racism within the court room.

In today’s society we still see instances of racial injustice in the court room. A more recent unfair trial was of the Jenna Six. The Jenna Six were a group of boys who were charged with attempted murder for beating up a white student who they discovered had hung three nooses from the school tree. The big trial though was of Mychal Bell, one of the Jenna Six. He was charged with aggravated second-degree battery. The word aggravated battery refers to the use of a dangerous weapon. District attorney Walters argued that a shoe was a dangerous weapon. Mychal’s trial went before an all white jury. It was no surprise the jury found him guilty and sentenced him to up to 20 years in prison.Many people feel that this case was an instance of racial injustice. A woman name Silvia Newby, from Dumfries Virginia states “Why are people so surprised? They were black boys right? Black men are railroaded and unjustly prosecuted every day. Racism is very much alive and being the mother of two young black men I make damn sure they know it.” It is more than 100 years since legal segregation and blacks still face racism. With racism there will always be an unfair situation; in this case that happened to six boys in Louisiana.