The verdict was meant to reflect not the law and the evidence, but the passionate narrative to which the ruling powers of Minnesota subscribe.
When I was eleven and twelve, I was gripped by the stunning injustice of segregation. I read To Kill a Mockingbird and Black Like Me. I saw the photos and heard the stories of the separate but never equal accommodations in buses, at water fountains, and in schools. I learned of lynchings, of trials never conducted before a jury of one’s peers, of guilt being determined by skin color, not by evidence. I learned of the Scottsboro Boys and the mockery made of the Constitution and the law and their requirements for due process. The segregationist community desired to send a message, and that, not fact, not justice, ruled the courts and dictated the verdicts.
