Torture and African American Courtroom Testimony

Chapter two focuses on the Dave Canty case and the Daniels-Robinson case. The two cases shows how allegations of torture were dealt with during criminal proceedings and examines the means used by African American suspects to substantiate allegations of torture during their trials. Overall, this chapter examines the testimonies of African American defendants and the degree to which their statements were recognized by the courts of the South.

The Investigations by the Federal Government

Chapter five shows the FBI investigations against William F. Sutherland as the first in a series of federal probes launched by representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice to sanction the persistent violation of the civil rights of blacks by law enforcement officials in the South. FBI investigation documented conditions of defendants capturing photos of wounds and evidence of weapons. Regardless of evidence provided against authorities, there was a limited chance of success. In addition, in all the cases covered in chapter five, lawmen were accused of abusing and torturing black suspects in violation of their civil rights. Despite the outcome of the trials, the FBI investigations exposed and brought awareness of police torture. Overall, the FBI investigations brought to light a multitude of other allegations of mistreatment by African American prisoners and challenged the system of police violence in the South.

Selective Public Outrage

This chapter deals with the selective public outcry over the use of torture in the case of Quintar South. The abuse of Quintar South was one of the few cases in which the torture practices of law enforcement officials captured the attention of the white population in the South. A reporter to the white press of Atlanta, C.E. Harrison supported directing a number of readers to speak up against police misconduct and brutality. Breaking conventional representational practices of the American Press, Atlanta Constitution and Atlanta Daily published brutal images, which showed blacks as passive victims of racial violence.

Police Torture and “Legal Lynchings” in the American South

This chapter examines the connection between the torture inflicted by law enforcement officials in the South during the 1930s and 1940s and the decline in the number of lynching of African Americans during this period. The Scottsboro case displays the racist structure of the justice system and outlines the tradition of violence and pattern of African Americans accused of rape and sexual assault. The illustration of violence further examines black history involving the Reconstruction era in which African American challenged for equality against white supremacy. Emphasized in this chapter is the process of torture by lynching against African American. Lynching aimed to discipline landless blacks and serve as a fear and embed a stereotype of racial difference. The decrease of lynching occurred in the early 1900s as the South questioned their reputation, and the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching (ASWPL) promoted anti-lynching campaigns. The case of Ed Brown, Arthur Ellington, and Henry Shields documents the violent dynamics that tended to emerge as state authorities increasingly asserted their monopoly on the use of force in the South.

The NAACP Campaign against “Forced Confessions”

This chapter sheds light on the work of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which launched a campaign in the mid-1930s against torture and forced confessions in the South. The NAACP led legal battles to combat discrimination against African American citizens in the areas of education, labor, voting rights, and the judicial system. Cases the NAACP financially supported and appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court include Brown v. Mississippi, the Chambers v. Florida, the Lyons case, and the Groveland Four. The NAACP aimed to draw attention to lynching violence and characterizes the barbaric acts to American nation as a strategy to bring awareness of racial discrimination against African American.