Legacies of Limited Justice and the Sandra Bland Case
Kali Nicole Gross
Posted: 09/14/2015 5:09 pm EDT Updated: 4 hours ago
September 15, 2015 marks the 52nd anniversary of the deaths of Addie Mae Collins, 14, Denise McNair, 11, Carole Robertson, 14 and Cynthia Wesley, 14. They lost their lives when a white supremacist, Robert Chambliss, planted a bomb in their church in Birmingham, Al. Chambliss would not face justice until over a decade later when he was convicted of murder in the late 1970s ...
Bland's death is now being handled "just as it would be in a murder investigation" by local authorities, the Texas Rangers to be precise--though accounts have noted "with the supervision of the FBI." Having a local agency involved is already problematic, but the Texas Rangers in particular seem least likely to take down one of their own on behalf of a black woman.
If this seems like an unfair rush to judgment, keep in mind that this outfit has a long history of anti-black and anti-Mexican violence, and it operated as an instrument of white supremacist control before and after the Civil War. Also, consider that the Texas Department of Public Safety promotes its Confederate history proudly on its website, noting: "Texas Rangers and former members enlisted in 'Terry's Texas Rangers,' and made an enviable record in the Confederate Army." The same website refers to Reconstruction as "The darkest period in the history" of the Rangers. This period marks one of the few times before the Civil Rights Movement, when freed blacks actually enjoyed some of the benefits of citizenship ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kali-nicole-gross/sandra-bland-and-the-lega_b_8131154.html