What Can Be Done Now

Although many want to argue that "the past is dead and gone", we differ. Not only do we disagree we think much can be done today to addresses the injustices of the past. Here are just a few suggestions

• Citizens and public officials could publicly acknowledge that these events occurred and that no one was ever brought to justice for them.


• We could establish a series of historical markers to acknowledge these events and the lives lost.


• We could commit to long-term, community dialogue about these, along with other racial injustices, in order to learn about our collective history and bridge the racial divide that remains with us.


• We could make a deliberate, community wide effort to collect more information about total number of lives lost to racial terrorism in Lowndes and Brooks Counties.


• We could work to have dialogue between the ancestors of the victims of racial terrorism and the ancestors of those who perpetrated that victimization in an effort to acknowledge and heal those wounds.


• We could, and should, research the economic impacts of these acts of terrorism in terms land-property loss, the abandoment of businesses by the mass exodus of Blacks fearing for their lives, etc..


• We could begin to education and infuse this history into local, state, and national education systems in an effort to make sure our children now our history and learn from it.


• We could acknowledge these lives and the lives of others lost to racial terrorism through an annual day of remembrance. On that day, the community might gather to break bread, reflect on our past, discuss our present situation, and what we need to do in the future to make our community a more just place.