About Connections:. Love it or hate it, history is a map. Those who hate history think it irrelevant; many who love history think it escapism. In truth, history is the clearest road map to how we got here: America in the twenty-first century
The witnesses disagreed. There were four young men involved; there were more. Actually one man instigated and then passers-by piled in. It was spur of the moment; tensions spontaneously ignited. No, it was two gangs and the anger that led to the fight had been fomenting for weeks.
At the highest level of abstraction there is always concurrence; the devil is in the details. So there was perfect accord that a physical altercation broke out. There was agreement that the combatants were black and white. There was unity in the description of a “near race riot.”
The police were credited with coming and breaking it up, and yet, after they arrived one black man was “used pretty roughly.” He was knocked down more than once and badly enough injured so that he had to be escorted home.
When it was over, the white community was angry that the Blacks, clearly the perpetrators in their opinion, were not arrested. The Black community was angry that a young Black man was injured with police present, and perhaps, by the police.
There was an escalation of feeling: there were threats voiced and taunts hurled at the police. Within two years a pipe bomb was place in the stove of the Police Chief. Luckily, the bomber was as inept as he was vindictive. The damage did not go beyond the stove itself. Also that year there was an alleged investigation of the police.
“There is a story that charges will be preferred against the chief.”
Some nodded in satisfaction. Others claimed, such charges “do not have much foundation as the Chief has done an excellent job.”
An editorial voice, trying to nurture calm said, “There is no official nor will there ever be who can please everybody and still do the duties of a police officer as they should be done.”
Baltimore? New York? Ferguson? No, Great Barrington, Massachusetts 1893.
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Author’s Note:
Probably the simplest way to define my column Connections is: the more things change the more they remain the same. It is a joy for me to write and I hope in reading it you are sometimes surprised, entertained, or gratified. I intend to continue, but there will be a pause while I meet another contractual obligation.
I am obliged to deliver a 65,000-word manuscript to my publisher on June 15. The topic is Eighteenth Century women: “herstory” told in her own voice. Except of course in Eighteenth Century America only ten percent of the population was literate and not even half of that number was female so her voice was muted at best; first person accounts by women are rare, and finding them a treasure hunt.
Nonetheless as my grandfather used to say, “I’ll do it if the Good Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise.”
I will do it but until I do – save my place and wish me luck and on June 16, 2015, I will be back to fill it.
Carole Owens
