A LONG, OLD STRUGGLE — Will the women instill a new narrative?
Reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett
“A few months ago the conscience of this country was shocked because, after a two-week trial, a French judicial tribunal pronounced Captain Dreyfus guilty. And yet, in our own land and under our own flag, [I] can give day and detail of one thousand men, women, and children who during the last six years were put to death without trial before any tribunal on earth. Humiliating indeed, but altogether unanswerable, was the reply of the French press to our protest: ‘Stop your lynchings at home before you send your protests abroad.’” Activist journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, 1900Violence ending and turning earlier American centuries
“In today’s environment, there has to be a different way to hold the mirror of morality up in such a way that it might break the cycle of violence. Women can be the key to this if they reach out to each other across international boundaries.” Nonviolence activist Lucy Nusseibeh, 2010
It was “not the creation of an hour, a sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury, or the unspeakable brutality of an insane mob,” American teacher and journalist, Ida B. Wells wrote of an American pastime in the late 1890s. It was “the cool, calculating deliberation of intelligent people who openly avowed that there is an ‘unwritten law’ that justified putting human beings to death without complaint under oath, without trial by jury, without opportunity to make defense, and without right of appeal.”
“The ‘unwritten law’ excused the rough, rugged, and determined man who left the civilized centers of eastern States in search of quick returns in the gold fields of the far West. Following in uncertain pursuit of continually eluding fortune, they dared … the Indians, the hardships of mountain travel, and the … border State outlaws. They tolerated traitors in their own ranks; it was enough to fight the enemies from without— woe to the foe within! Far removed from and entirely without protection of the courts of civilized life, these fortune-seekers made laws to meet their varying emergencies.…”
Under this ‘unwritten law,’ “butchery is made a pastime. National savagery is condoned.”
“[The ‘unwritten law’ caused the deaths] of many men later found to have been innocent. “Sufficient excuse and reasonable justification for putting a prisoner to death under this ‘unwritten law’ [was] a frequently repeated charge that lynching horrors were necessary to prevent crimes against women.…
Leading journals [of the day] inflamed the public mind to the lynching point with scare-headlined articles and offers of rewards. Whenever a burning was advertised, railroads ran excursions, photographs were taken. “The same jubilee is indulged in that characterized public hangings of a hundred years before.”
In the old days, “the multitude was permitted to stand by, gaze or jeer.” Now, “the lynch mob cuts off ears, toes, and fingers, strips off flesh, and distributes portions of the body as souvenirs among the crowd. If the leaders of the mob are so minded, they pour coal oil over the body and the victim is then roasted to death.…”
The lynching issue “affects the entire American nation — ‘land of the free and the home of the brave.’ … Brave men do not gather by the thousands to torture and murder an individual, so gagged and bound as to be incapable of even feeble resistance or defense.… Brave men or women do not stand by and watch without compunction of conscience or read of them without protest. …
“Our nation has been active and outspoken in its endeavors to right the wrongs of the Armenian Christian, the Russian Jew, the Irish Home Ruler, the native women of India, the Siberian exile, and the Cuban patriot. Surely, it should be the nation’s duty to correct its own evils!”
Today’s Despair
“There is a closure of minds and futures as well as roads,” writes the founder of Middle East Nonviolence and Democracy. “The economy is in almost total collapse. There is no sign of a turnaround, only more of the same.
“Many children no longer dream of anything other than becoming ‘martyrs.’ It is all that most women can do just to cope for themselves and for their families. In this situation of siege and bomb attacks — with women and children paying the heaviest price — such coping is itself an assertion of nonviolence. Nonviolence in this situation is just coping with the fear, devastation, poverty, humiliation, and constant, all-pervasive tension to try to remain human.…”
Violence cuts off potential. Nonviolence asserts humanity and develops potential in spite of opposing odds. Violence breeds hatred and leads to a vicious and inhuman cycle. Nonviolence — as a form of assertiveness and empowerment — enables people to stand, even in the face of overwhelming violence, to retain their humanity, and to break the cycle of violence.…
“Palestinian women have used nonviolent approaches since the very beginning of the conflict early in the last century.…
“In today’s environment, there has to be a different way to hold the mirror of morality up in such a way that it might break the cycle of violence. Women can be the key to this if they reach out to each other across international boundaries. If women from outside the Middle East come as international observers to witness the plight of Palestinian women and talk about what they see, perhaps [the voices of Palestinian women within] can be heard.”
Sources and notes
“Ida B. Wells-Barnett, ‘Lynch Law in America,’ The Arena 23.1 (January 1900): 15-24. Chicago,
American Public Address, Department of Communication, University of Washington (archived)
http://courses.washington.edu/spcmu/speeches/idabwells.htm
Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells-Barnett (b. July 16, 1862, Holly Springs, Mississippi, U.S., d. March 25, 1931, Chicago, Illinois), née Ida Bell Wells, was an African American journalist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s. She was first a teacher then a journalist, who bought an interest in the Memphis Free Speech. In 1892, after three friends were lynched by a mob, Wells began an editorial campaign against lynching. Her newspaper office was destroyed but she continued her anti-lynching crusade, first as a staff writer for the New York Age, then as a lecturer and organizer of anti-lynching societies. She traveled and spoke in a number of major U.S. cities and twice visited Britain for the cause. Britannica notes
“Palestinian Women and Nonviolence,” (Lucy Nusseibeh), Mediterranean Women, http://www.mediterraneas.org/article.php3?id_article=41
Lucy Nusseibeh
Lucy Nusseibeh is founder and director of Middle East Nonviolence and Democracy (MEND), a non-governmental organization that educates grassroots political leaders, Palestinian youth, their teachers and their families about nonviolence and democracy through innovating media techniques as well as establishing resource centers. In addition to educational activities and training programs in active nonviolence, MEND has conducted two women-specific projects: one in coordination with UNIFEM (the UN Development Fund for Women) and the other a cross-community project bringing together Palestinian and Israeli women, in coordination with Search for a Common Ground-USA and the Truman Institute. Some of MEND’s cross-community work includes the organization of two year-long projects with the Truman Institute on co-facilitation between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the organization of an international conference on leadership innovation and transformation that also included Israelis.
Middle East Nonviolence and Democracy or MEND promotes active nonviolence and encourages alternatives to violence among youth and adults throughout Palestine. MEND is an active member in the Arab Partnership for Conflict Prevention and Human Security but has no political affiliations and does not discriminate. Women and men of a wide range of nationalities, religions and political affiliation work and have worked with MEND, http://www.mendonline.org/aboutus.html
http://www.mendonline.org/anvcenters.html
http://www.amin.org/eng/lucy_nusseibeh/2002/jan14.html
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