Re: 'Duck Dynasty' star Phil Robertson suspended by A&E
None of which applies, though... So far as I could tell, he was saying "I didn't see any angry/upset black people....personally".
He wasn't saying nothing bad happened, just that he didn't see any.
The problem isn't that he said that he didn't personally see anything bad at that time, the problem is that he is claiming that before they got civil rights that black people were singing and godly and they were happy (aka not singing the blues). And he is claiming from his white point of view. He might have gotten on reasonably or even perfectly well with blacks in that day and age but to claim that they were happier and better off?
This event (that I am posting here now) was a mere 3 decades before Robertson was born:
Before the 17-year old could be sentenced, and with little or no resistance offered by any of the various legal entities in the courthouse, several hundred of the onlookers (some brandishing weapons) rushed Washington and carried him out the doors. Outside, a larger crowd waited to beat and castrate him. A chain was thrown around Washington’s neck, and he was dragged to the town square, where he met an immense crowd as well as the pile of dry goods boxes that was to be his end.
By some estimates, up to 15,000 (mostly white, though not exclusively white) people watched the horrible events unfold; without question, Waco’s mayor as well as several other public officials watched from their second-story perch at town hall on one side of the square. Washington was tossed onto the boxes and coal oil was poured over him. The other end of the chain was thrown over what has become known as the Hanging Tree, and the fuel below Washington’s feet was set ablaze. Immersed in the flames, he attempted to climb the blisteringly hot chain multiple times, each time to be lowered back into the cauldron. It’s unclear how long Washington was alive, but the event lasted more than an hour, after which his fingers and teeth were claimed as souvenirs, his body parts were separated from the torso, and the remains of Washington were dumped in a bag so they might be dragged once more through the Waco streets.
ExecutedToday.com » 1916: Jesse Washington lynched after conviction
Upon reaching the city hall grounds, the leaders of the mob threw Washington onto a pile of dry goods boxes under a tree and poured coal oil over his body. The chain around Washington's neck was thrown over a limb of the tree, and several men lowered his body onto the pile of combustibles and ignited a fire. An observer wrote:
"Washington was beaten with shovels and bricks (...) was castrated, and his ears were cut off. A tree supported the iron chain that lifted him above the fire (...) Wailing, the boy attempted to climb up the skillet hot chain. For this, the men cut off his fingers."
Two hours later, some men placed the burned corpse in a cloth bag and pulled the bundle behind an automobile to Robinson, where they hung the sack from a pole in front of a blacksmith's shop for public viewing.
Jesse Washington | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers
The events written about here are extremes and not the common practice but violence against blacks in the young years of Robertson were rarely prosecuted. On the other hand blacks were guilty when arrested (almost always) and the innocent until proven otherwise was virtually never applicable to black Americans in the South.
It is not that Robertson didn't see anything wrong, but he makes a conclusion based on his assumptions and that is a very bad basis for making such sweeping claims.