[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 81 (Friday, June 17, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1259-E1260]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SENATE APOLOGY: LONG OVERDUE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 16, 2005

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize 
the importance of several issues of historical and contemporary 
significance involving racial violence in the State of Mississippi.
  On Friday, June 10, 2005, the Washington Post ran an article 
detailing the story of James

[[Page E1260]]

Cameron; the only living survivor of a lynching. Cameron, a 91 year old 
native of Marion, Indiana, recalled the ordeal in which he was falsely 
accused of a rape and murder and then attacked by a mob of white 
citizens after being arrested and jailed. Once the mob had beaten, 
kicked, and humiliated three innocent men; they were all lynched. At 
some point during this process, someone cried out to the mob that James 
Cameron had nothing to do with the murder, and so he was then taken 
back to jail where he was eventually detained on robbery charges. 
Today, James Cameron is alive to see the passage of the U.S. Senate 
Resolution, apologizing for and acknowledging the failure of Senate to 
enact anti-lynching legislation.
  Though it lacked the signatures of the two Senators representing the 
State with the most reported incidents of lynching, I commend the 
United States Senate for their resolution offering a formal apology to 
the victims of lynching and the descendants of those victims. In 1900, 
Congressman George White, an African American, introduced anti-lynching 
legislation which was fought off tooth and nail. Since then, it has 
taken more than 100 years for the Congress to offer an apology or 
acknowledge this failure.
  The State of Mississippi has had the most lynching reports in the 
Nation. Since 1882 there have been 581 reported cases of lynching in 
the State of Mississippi. That tallies in at a whopping 4.7 reported 
cases each year. These numbers do not include the unreported cases and 
those ``conspiracy theories'' like Raynard Johnson of Kokomo, MS, found 
in his yard hanging from a tree with a belt wrapped around his neck in 
2000.
  It has been more than 40 years since the murder of Andrew Goodman, 
James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner, who were lynched in Philadelphia, 
MS, and it has been more than 50 years since the murder of Emmitt Louis 
Till, who was lynched in Money, MS. Today, the case of the three civil 
rights workers and the case of Emmitt Louis Till have been re-opened so 
that the State of Mississippi can finally bring forth resolution in 
these murders. These cases have one similar thread; they are 
perpetuated by the fact that there has been no justice rendered.
  The issuance of the U.S. Senate's apology, the re-opening of the case 
of the three civil rights workers and young Mr. Till are long overdue. 
It has taken our Nation decades to come to grips with these atrocities. 
The Senate apology and the justice sought in the murders do not mend 
the perceived racial rift that has transpired, but the actions are 
definitely a step in the right direction.

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