In the fall of 1768, British soldiers were sent to Boston to “police” colonial unrest following the introduction of the Stamp Act. Radical Whigs, who supported an American “revolution” against Britain, coordinated waterfront protests of the King’s authorities.
The presence of British Redcoats, instead of reducing tensions, provoked them.
After dusk on March 5, 1770, a crowd of colonists confronted soldiers guarding a customs house. The colonists threw snowballs and debris at the soldiers. After a soldier was struck in the face by an ice-laced “snowball” which drew blood, the soldiers fired into the crowd.
Five colonists were killed, including Crispus Attucks.
The Sons of Liberty promoted the “Boston Massacre” as a just cause for the removal of British troops. Paul Revere’s engraving of the Massacre, distributed throughout the colonies, intensified support for the revolution.
Crispus Attucks became a hero that day, lionized in poetry, prose, and song.
“First man to die for the flag we now hold high was a black man” is a line from Stevie Wonder’s song “Black Man.”
John Boyle O’Reilly, Irish American poet, penned: “Where shall we seek a hero? The first to defy, and the first to die … Call it riot or revolution, or mob or crowd as you may, such deaths have been seeds of nations, such lives shall be honored.”
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that Crispus Attucks provided a potent message of moral courage.
A new Crispus Attucks – and new heroes
George Floyd’s murder has brought a “Crispus Attucks” type attention to the “structural racist” killings of young black people by police or vigilantes – Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, and now Rayshard Brooks.
Many “heroes” have preceded this moment of ”institutional” racism. Daisy Gates and the Little Rock 9, Coretta Scott King of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, John Lewis (D-GA), Elijah Cummings (D-MD), and Jim Clyburn (D-SC), US Representatives who have contributed mountains of moral leadership.
Let’s not forget our local “hero” Councilman Danny Hudspeth, who provides enlightened leadership on the discussion of the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue from the courthouse lawn. Ja Morant, a SC product and Murray State’s most recent NBA star, supports the statue being moved.
Craig Clymer, a regional ”hero” and McCracken County Judge-Executive, has secured the Paducah water tower for a mural with a hand of color clasping a white hand with the American Flag in the background and “United We Stand” above it. This is countering the symbols of racism directly across the interstate at the “Confederate Park” with a Jumbo “Stars and Bars” flag.
Meanwhile, in the U.S. Senate …
Recently, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) has been given an arduous task by unpopular Senate leader Mitch McConnell: come up with the Republican response to the Democratic House’s bill on policing.
“He knows of the slights, humiliations, and dangers of simply being black. He is regularly stopped and profiled, and he receives racist death threats,” said Karl Rove, Republican strategist.
So Tim Scott has a choice – follow Kentucky’s “Great Compromiser” hero Henry Clay, be a uniter like Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), or parrot an obstructionist partisan like Mitch McConnell.
Unfortunately, Tim Scott’s lock-step hypocritical uncompromising position on unconditional support for “qualified immunity” — a shield for police who perform duties and violate a person’s civil rights — is not supported by libertarian, conservative, or liberal groups who believe it denies justice to victims of police misconduct.
Even so, there are heroes out there – and here as well
Yet even while the Senate dithers, forward-looking policing reforms are taking place in places like Camden, NJ: bans on chokeholds, eliminating “no knock” warrants, and prioritizing services such as youth development, mental health, re-entry support, and provisions for the homeless. Boosting these services helps to strengthen community resources.
And locally, the Calloway County Sheriff’s office has a “Ride Along” program, Play Day in the Park, National Night Out, and school programs for “heroic” Community involvement. But as in Camden, the Sheriff wants the mental health and social services components to be revamped, with more funding for social workers and mental health professionals to take that load off his department.
Yes, in the midst of this crisis, we can still find heroes.
But Republicans Tim Scott and Mitch McConnell are proving that heroes are hard to find in the U.S. Senate.
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