The murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the campus of the University of Georgia Feb. 22 has drawn national media interest and political activity. Right-wing movers and shakers have especially been galvanized by this one murder. I think I…
Capital punishment continues America’s history of lynching, panelists say
Capital punishment in the United States continues a system of lynchings used to terrorize and subjugate Black people in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a panel of death penalty abolitionists said during a recent webinar. “The mistake people sometimes…
Tennessee representative who proposed execution by ‘hanging by a tree’ needs a history lesson
There’s more than the usual political craziness attached to the recent remark by Tennessee Rep. Paul Sherrell to bring back “hanging by a tree” as an amendment to a firing squad bill. There’s a denial of horrible history. This is…
The truth and nothing but the truth
I spoke for more than an hour and a half with a FOX News journalist yesterday. That interview ranged across Critical Race Theory, book banning and censorship, racism in American history, faith and spiritual practice, and what, at its best,…
In Brunswick, Ga., a storm is brewing
I was born and raised in Orlando, Fla., and one of the things I remember from my childhood experience was knowing when a storm was coming our way. You just knew from the look and smell that you should prepare…
‘A Change Is Gonna Come’: Ahmaud Arbery and the call to transform injustice
Sam Cooke said it best in soulful, somber song: “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Cooke wrote this song in the early 1960s as a protest to support the Civil Rights Movement. It was a volatile season for this country, as…
Is it now illegal to mention the Tulsa Race Massacre in the classrooms of Oklahoma?
On June 1, 1921, the Greenwood district of Tulsa, home to more than 10,000 Black residents, was intentionally destroyed by a white mob. An estimated 300 Black residents died; close to 1,000 were seriously injured. Every home in the 30-block…
Virginia interfaith leaders explain how other states could abolish death penalty just as Virginia has done
Connecting legislation with spirituality and supporters with tangible social justice actions propelled death penalty opponents to victory in Virginia, two organizers of the movement said during a March 29 Baptist News Global webinar. LaKeisha Cook and Roberta Oster of the…
This Good Friday, I’ll be at the hanging tree
We cannot on Good Friday disconnect the crucified Jesus from what Ignacio Ellacuria, Salvadoran martyr, called “the crucified peoples of history.” American Christians must place the Cross alongside the lynching tree, as James Cone makes unforgettably clear in his last…