Senate to apologize

[Soxy]

Trib's story

 

Going public with story of family's private pain

An Evanston woman helps relatives end denial over the 1916 lynching of her great-great grandfather in South Carolina

 

By Lisa Black

Tribune staff reporter

Published June 9, 2005

 

When she entered kindergarten, Doria Johnson was well aware of the 1916 lynching of her great-great grandfather in South Carolina--a story so painful that relatives rarely discussed it, let alone share it publicly.

 

Johnson, 44, of Evanston, broke that silence after learning details of Anthony Crawford's death. A wealthy black cotton farmer, Crawford was beaten, hanged and shot more than 200 times by white villagers in Abbeville after a dispute with a white merchant.

 

Having spent 15 years tracking down relatives, researching public records and lecturing on his slaying, Johnson feels appreciative as she travels to Washington this weekend to watch history take a different course.

 

On Monday, the U.S. Senate is expected to approve a resolution apologizing for its refusal to pass anti-lynching legislation after the end of slavery.

 

Johnson will sit with descendants of other lynching victims, including a cousin of Emmett Till, 14, of Chicago, who was slain in 1955, allegedly for whistling at a white woman in Mississippi.

 

"Although it's late, yes, and although it's symbolic, it's necessary," Johnson said. "We've been here the whole time. Now we're getting attention."

 

After visiting the scene of the lynching in 1990, Johnson was moved to tell Crawford's story for history's sake and to record the damage done to her ancestors, most of whom fled South Carolina out of fear.

 

Few relatives have been willing to return to Abbeville, in the northwest part of the state near Georgia, where Crawford owned a large plantation and raised 13 children.

 

Johnson--who is working with New York director Carol Devoe on a documentary about her family--understands their reluctance.

 

Johnson's drive into Abbeville on a 105-degree day was through about 30 miles of rural countryside, where she saw a smattering of old farmhouses and slave cemeteries indicated by wooden markers. It was so peaceful, she said, she had to remind herself that the area had been home to 20,000 slaves.

 

"It was almost like a movie," she said. "It was surreal. I could just see slaves, men, women and children, working in that heat.

 

"I started feeling terrorized, literally. I was sweating and looking out the back window wondering if they were going to come get me, to finish the job."

 

She can't believe that with all the news coverage, no one has tried to contact her family, let alone offer an apology.

 

Abbeville Mayor Harold McNeill, 73, who has been in office for five years, said he is sorry about the incident but said that no one has asked for an apology. "It might be something to think about," he said.

 

The Abbeville City Council agreed to allow a Johnson cousin to install a monument to Crawford in front of the opera house, he said. The city--which has four African-Americans on its council--is waiting for the family to come up with $91,000 to complete the project, McNeill said.

 

Johnson's grandfather told her about her great-great grandfather as soon as she began befriending white children in kindergarten at the former Foster School in Evanston.

 

Some documents Johnson used to corroborate the story are on display in the "Without Sanctuary" exhibition at the Chicago Historical Society.

 

"My grandfather hated white people. He just never forgot what he saw while growing up in Augusta, Ga.," said Johnson, who blames the U.S. government for fostering a culture of white supremacy at the time.

 

What she learned about Crawford, born in 1865 to a former slave, was that at the time of his death, he owned 427 acres of the "best cotton land in the county."

 

Known as "Andy," he considered himself a law-abiding citizen but was resented by some whites because he was black and wealthy, according to an NAACP report issued after his death.

 

On the day he was killed, he had quarreled with store owner W.D. Barksdale over the price of cotton seed. Crawford said he had received a better offer for his seed, and Barksdale called him a liar, according to Johnson's research.

 

Crawford cursed Barksdale and was arrested. After he was released from jail, a mob cornered him, and Crawford defended himself by clubbing the ringleader with an ax handle.

 

Crawford was returned to jail for his own protection but was dragged from his cell, according to an article by Johnson posted on the Internet.

 

"Two hundred white men kicked him, beat him, tied him to the back of a buggy, dragged him through the black neighborhoods then finally strung him to a tree and unloaded 200 rounds into what was left of his body," Johnson wrote.

 

Threats from mob leaders drove the Crawfords from Abbeville. The governor had been out of state at the time of the killing but reportedly was furious and ordered an investigation, according to the NAACP report.

 

A grand jury decided there was not enough evidence to indict anyone, and the Crawfords never recovered any land, according to records.

 

Johnson said the property has changed hands four times and is largely used for timber by a paper company.

 

Pressured by national civil rights leaders and disturbed by the imagery in a book about lynchings, "Without Sanctuary," the Senate is poised to approve an apology for not doing more, officials said.

 

"Righting a past wrong is something the senator believes in," said Sally Richardson, spokeswoman for Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the resolution's sponsors. "When she read `Without Sanctuary,' she did not realize that [the U.S. House] had passed this type of legislation but the Senate had not."

 

The resolution expresses remorse for not outlawing lynching, which claimed the lives of more than 4,700 people, predominantly African-Americans, from the 1880s to the 1960s.

 

Johnson's father, a psychologist in Riverside, Calif., said he is proud of his daughter's work, as it may help heal the family and enlighten a nation.

 

"Doria brought it out to the forefront," Charles Johnson said.

 

"We all knew it was there but we were all in denial."

[FlaSoxxJim]

Late and symbolic, yes, but still a necessary and appropriate gesture.

[Balta1701]

Something needs to be watched tonight in regards to this post...

 

The Senate supposedly is delaying the vote on this amendment until very late in the evening when very few people are left in the Senate. They will then take merely a voice vote and let it pass.

 

Why? Because, the rumors say, 12 or so Southern Senators don't want to go on the record in favor of an anti-lynching resolution.

 

Don't have any official sources on the matter, but just watch - if it's done on a voice vote late at night, I'll be saying I told you so.