Ahmaud Arbery: A Modern Day Lynching
In January of 1900, Ida B Wells, a well-known journalist and activist, gave a speech titled “Lynch Law in America.” In this speech, she exposed the history and impact of what she called “lynching mania” in the United States. In graphic detail, she described how the lynching of Black people began in the South around the time that the 15th Amendment gave Black citizens the right to vote, and spread quickly through the rest of the country. According to Wells, over the course of 30 years, over 10,000 Black men, women, and children were shot, drowned, hanged, or burned to death by mobs of Klu Klux Klan members and other white supremacists. She argued that these lynchings were justified as punishments for supposed crimes committed with no evidence or trial, and often came from word-of-mouth accusations. Nothing had been done to stop the lynching and murder of innocent Black people, but rather it was celebrated and promoted by politicians and the media.
Wells argues that, according to many white people, it “is right and proper that a human being should be seized by a mob and burned to death upon the unsworn and the uncorroborated charge of his accuser”(Wells, 1900). No matter what the accused crime, Black people, most commonly Black men, were put to death with no trial or evidence. Speaking up for their rights, engaging in minor conflicts with white people, or even just being Black in a town where a crime has occurred, were the reasoning for these gruesome murders. No evidence or trial was needed to back up these lynchings. If one white person made a claim that a crime was committed by a Black person, no matter how minor, then the lynching was justified in the eyes of the public and the lynchers did not face any consequences. Wells traces this back to the days of public executions and the normalization of communities gathering to watch a “criminal” being put to death.
Many people in 2021 might think these days are behind us, and that we as a society have moved beyond these senseless and horrific acts. However, one only has to look to the thousands of protests over the summer of 2020 to know that lynchings are still alive and well in America. The unpunished murder of Black people by both citizens and police officers, as well as the media attention these crimes garner mirror the days of large public lynchings.
One of the most direct examples of modern day lynching is the February 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed Black 25-year-old man, by two white men in Georgia. On February 23rd, Arbery was out for a run in a neighborhood near his own in Brunswick, Georgia. After briefly stopping to check out a house that was under construction, he continued his run. Soon after, he was chased and gunned down by Gregory and Travis McMichael. The father and son chased Arbery in their truck, at one point even hitting him with the side of the truck, and allegedly yelled racial slurs at him before shooting him several times. This appalling crime has been described by many people, including then Democratic nominee President Joe Biden, as a lynching.
The McMichaels have since claimed that they thought Arbery was a suspect in a supposed string of robberies in the area, though The Brunswick News reported that there had been only one robbery in the area between January and February 2020, a gun stolen from an unlocked truck outside of the McMichael residence. This baseless accusation, along with the fact that a 911 call had been made by a community member concerned about Arbery’s presence at the construction site, were used by many to justify his murder, or at least to argue that the McMichaels were doing what they thought was right in the moment. This echoes exactly what Wells discussed in her January 1900 speech, that lynchings were done with no trial or evidence of a crime. Gregory and Travis McMichael took the law into their own hands and murdered Ahmaud Arbery for allegedly resembling a suspect in a string of robberies for which no reports can be found.
Additionally, Wells argued in her speech that “in many instances the leading citizens aid and abet by their presence when they do not participate, and the leading journals inflame the public mind to the lynching point with scare-head articles and offers of rewards. Whenever a burning is advertised to take place, the railroads run excursions, photographs are taken,” (Wells, 1900). Not only were the lynchings done with no consequences for the murderers, but they also were egged on by media attention and public officials. Lynchings were advertised and written about in newspapers as public events. Community leaders, while perhaps not participating for themselves, supported these acts by looking the other way and never condemning the murders. This was a critical reason for the continuation of lynchings. The media and community leaders played significant roles in public opinion, even in the 19th and 20th centuries. If the newspapers portrayed these murders in a positive light, then the general public had no objections.
This element is also present in Ahmaud Arbery’s case, as a video of the murder was recorded and later released, garnering significant media and public attention. The video was taken by William Bryan, a third man who joined the McMichaels in their pursuit of Arbery. This footage was later leaked by a criminal defense lawyer who consulted on the case. The video instantly went viral. Though many were on Arbery’s side rather than the McMichaels’, the public interest in the murder and interest in the footage resembles exactly what Wells argued about the ways in which the media enables these lynchings. Modern technology has brought us back to the days of public executions and mob lynchings, as millions of people watch videos of gruesome murders such as Arbery’s.
It took over two months for Gregory and Travis McMichael, as well as William Bryan, to be arrested and indicted. They have all pleaded not guilty and currently remain in jail awaiting trial. This breaks from Wells’ description of the unpunished lynchings, though recent similar cases such as Breonna Taylor and Trayvon Martin have shown that there is a strong possibility that they will not be found guilty.
Ahmaud Arbery’s murder is unfortunately not unique in modern America. Innocent Black men, women, and children such as Geroge Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, and so many other BIPOC have been killed by both civilians and police officers with little to no legal consequences. The silver lining in all of this pain is that public opinion is beginning to change. The Black Lives Matter movement, founded in 2013, is devoted to bringing awareness and consequences for the racially-charged murders of innocent Black people. The movement came to a head in the summer of 2020 after Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd were all murdered within 4 months of each other. Protesters flooded the streets in hundreds of cities to bring awareness to the rampant racism and police brutality in America.
However, many conservatives have pushed back against the Black Lives Matter movement and the claims that systemic racism exists in America. Protesters have been villainized by Republican politicians and right-wing media outlets such as Fox News. These critics often take the sides of the police officers and white men that commit these heinous crimes, bringing up past criminal records and arguing that past actions somehow justify a death sentence.
Clearly, lynching in America remains alive and well, as innocent and unarmed Black people are murdered simply for being Black. Modern technology has made it possible for these lynchings to be viewed and enabled on a much more massive scale. Just as Wells described in her speech, white supremacists are able to murder innocent Black men, women, and children with no consequences, and the media adds fuel to the fire by reporting on it in graphic detail. Lynching will remain a prominent force in America until concrete steps are taken to dismantle the systemic racism that pervades every aspect of our society.
