The 44 Percent: Correcting history, hostages in Haiti and “Insecure”

Correcting history matters.

Groveland Four. Central Park Five. Rev. Richard Higgs.

Each represents a moment in history where America got it wrong. The Groveland Four, accused in Lake County of raping a white woman in 1949, were either killed or handed extended jail sentences despite questionable evidence and coerced confessions. The Central Park Five were convicted for a 1989 rape they didn’t commit. Higgs, a Bahamian pastor, was beaten, smeared and driven out of Miami in 1921 for preaching racial equity.

Admitting an error is never easy. But leaving a mistake as is leaves the impression that the truth doesn’t matter. Or worse, that it does matter: just not enough for restitution. Either way, it sets a dangerous precedent.

C. Isaiah Smalls II author card
C. Isaiah Smalls II author card

The Groveland Four cannot be resurrected. The Central Park Five cannot get back their combined 34 years spent behind bars. Higgs cannot be posthumously welcomed back to Miami.

Acknowledging that a mistake was made, however, represents growth — as a people and, most importantly, as a society. And when dealing with a country that doesn’t have the best record on race, it shows that yesterday’s mistakes don’t have to be tomorrow’s future.

INSIDE THE 305

Roni Bennett, South Florida People of Color’s executive director, leads a discussion at the 2018 Miami Women’s March in Miami, Florida on Sunday, January 21, 2018. SFPoC is a nonprofit that provides a platform for racial dialogue with the end goal of eventually eradicating prejudice.
Roni Bennett, South Florida People of Color’s executive director, leads a discussion at the 2018 Miami Women’s March in Miami, Florida on Sunday, January 21, 2018. SFPoC is a nonprofit that provides a platform for racial dialogue with the end goal of eventually eradicating prejudice.

How a Miami group is trying to dismantle racism by leading difficult, honest conversations:

South Florida People of Color wants to have a talk with white America.

Through a series of events meant to promote uncomfortable conversations, the Miami-based organization is inching closer to its goal of eradicating racism. Just look at how the nonprofit’s founder Roni Bennett kicked off a book discussion:

“We also acknowledge that this land was founded upon exclusions and erasures of many Indigenous peoples,” Bennett told the audience. “Racism is real. White privilege is real. Everyone can work to end racism. Everyone has a role.”

Each of these conversations acknowledges that only a collective power can eliminate racism. Prejudice is not only a problem for the oppressed. The oppressors must help find a solution.

So if you’re looking to find a role in the fight for equality, attend one of South Florida People of Color’s famous Awkward Dinners. You won’t regret it.

OUTSIDE THE 305

Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd and Charles Greenlee were three of the four men wrongly accused of rape.
Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd and Charles Greenlee were three of the four men wrongly accused of rape.

Prosecutor files motion seeking to exonerate ‘Groveland Four’ once and for all:

“I have not witnessed a more complete breakdown of the criminal justice system.”

That’s how State Attorney William Gladson described the outcome of the Groveland Four case in a motion he filed Monday to toss out their convictions and indictments. The Groveland Four — Ernest Thomas, Samuel Shepherd, Charles Greenlee and Walter Irvin — were accused of raping a 17-year-old white girl in 1949.

“The evidence strongly suggests that a sheriff, a judge, and prosecutor all but guaranteed guilty verdicts in this case,” Gladson wrote. “These officials, disguised as keepers of the peace and masquerading as ministers of justice, disregarded their oaths, and set in motion a series of events that forever destroyed these men, their families, and a community.”

A mob killed Thomas, 26, after the rape accusation was made public. Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall, a notorious figure in his own right, shot both Shepherd and Irvin, claiming the two handcuffed men tried to escape while being transported for a retrial. Shepherd, 22, died, but Irvin survived and was later convicted, paroled in 1968 and found dead in his car one year later. Greenlee received a life sentence at just 16-years-old. He was paroled in 1962 and died in 2012.

Master of Jesus College Sonita Alleyne, left and Director General of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments Professor Abba Isa Tijani pose for a photo ahead of a ceremony at Jesus College Cambridge, where the looted bronze cockerel, known as the Okukur, will be returned to Nigeria, in Cambridge, England, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. Jesus College announced in 2019 that it would return the Okukor, a statue that was taken from the Court of Benin in what is now Nigeria by British colonial forces in 1897. (Joe Giddens/PA via AP)

Cambridge University returns looted artifact to Nigeria:

Part of correcting history also means reckoning with colonialism.

Cambridge University took a big step in that area by giving back a statue stolen from Nigeria back in 1897 by the British. The artifact, a bronze cockerel known as “Okukur,” holds “cultural and spiritual significance to the people of Nigeria,” says the university’s Jesus College master, Sonita Alleyne.

“It’s massively significant,” Alleyne said to the BBC about the artifact’s return to Nigerian representatives. “It’s a momentous occasion.”

A student’s father gave the Jesus College the statue in 1905. More than a century later, students campaigned for its return, which the college’s Legacy of Slavery Working Party agreed to do in 2019, stating that the artifact “belongs with the current Oba at the Court of Benin.” The Oba, or ruler, of Benin led the empire’s Eweka dynasty, located in what’s now Nigeria.

The Christian Aid Ministries headquarters in Berlin, Ohio, is closed Monday, Oct. 18, 2021, due to kidnappings in Haiti. U.S. officials are working with Haitian authorities to try to secure the release of 12 adults and five children with a U.S.-based missionary group who were abducted over the weekend by a gang notorious for killings, kidnappings and extortion.

U.S. deploying ‘significant’ assets to free Haiti hostages as Biden briefed daily on crisis:

The United States has sent “a significant number of law enforcement specialists and hostage recovery specialists” to Haiti in an effort to end a hostage crisis that now enters its 13th day, according to The White House.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters Tuesday that he updates President Joe Biden daily on the latest information out of Haiti. Sullivan also noted that “every possible option” will be evaluated to ensure the hostages’ safe return

Back in mid-October, the 400 Mawozo gang kidnapped 17 Christian Aid Ministries missionaries, including five children, who had just visited an orphanage in Port-au-Prince. One of the hostages is Canadian and the other 16 are American. The gang has since demanded a $17 million ransom, or $1 million per hostage.

HIGH CULTURE

Issa Rae in a scene from, “Insecure,” premiering Oct. 9.
Issa Rae in a scene from, “Insecure,” premiering Oct. 9.

Why Issa Rae’s “Insecure” matters so much as it returns for final season:

When “Insecure” airs its final episode, a significant part of Black America will weep. The show has been a constant in our lives since 2016 and I, for one, can’t imagine my life without it. What made “Insecure” so unique, as The Undefeated’s Justin Tinsley so eloquently explains, is that it depicted Black life in a way very few shows had done before:

That ability to see the nuance of happy hour conversations, microaggressions at work with white colleagues, uncomfortable dinners with former flings or romance’s confusing calculus. These mundane intimacies became a must-see. Those were the same daily realities that Hollywood’s white gaze had largely failed at capturing in an authentic way. It is a representation that can’t be mimicked unless you lived it. The bumps, bruises, heartbreaks, breakthroughs and everything in between. It all mattered because what started as a show ultimately became a mirror.

There’s a certain power in being able to see yourself on screen. It allows you to be comfortable without feeling the need to compromise in a white world. For five years, Black 20- and 30-somethings like myself have felt that power and hopefully harnessed it for good. Let’s just hope it won’t take too long for us to see ourselves again.

Where does “The 44 Percent” name come from? Click here to find out how Miami history influenced the newsletter’s title.