Oklahoma

On the first day of May in 1911, Austin Nelson, a Black man, stole a cow from Claude Littrell, a white man in Okemah, Oklahoma.

Nelson was married to Laura, and they had a 14 year-old son that they called L.D. and another infant child. Austin admitted stealing the cow, saying that the reason he did it was to feed his family. The next day, George Loney, a deputy sheriff in Okema and three other white men arrived at the Nelson home to investigate the theft. Upon the arrival of the men at the Nelson home, L.D. grabbed a rifle. His mother, Laura tried to take it from him. The gun went off and Loney, the deputy sheriff, was shot in the leg. He bled to death.

In an effort to save her son, Laura said that she was responsible for shooting Loney. Nevertheless, all four of them, Laura, her infant child, L.D., and Austin were taken to jail. On May 11, both Laura and L.D. were charged with killing George Loney. On May 12, Austin pleaded guilty to larceny and was sentenced to three years in the McAlcester State Penitentiary. Laura was placed in a cell at the courthouse to await trial. She kept her baby there with her. Her son L.D., was placed in the county jail in Okemah for the same purpose.

Sometime around midnight on May 25, 1911, a vigilante lynch mob of more than twenty men arrived at the county jail. They kidnaped L.D., and then went to the courthouse and took Laura and her baby as well. Both were taken to a bridge over the North Canadian River. Laura was raped. She was then allowed to leave the baby at the foot of the bridge before she and L.D. were hanged from it. The bodies were still hanging from the bridge the following day.

A large group of white people returned to the bridge the next day, posing on the bridge for photographs with the bodies of Laura and her son still hanging from it. The photographs were later sold and used as postcards from Oklahoma. It is not known what happened to the infant child.

One hundred years later…..

On March 7, 2015, America was given access via video to a party bus filled with members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, one of the oldest and largest college fraternities in the world. The brothers and their dates were in a very good mood, a singing mood. The video depicts them belting out a short ditty that sounds exactly like the song “If You’re Happy and You Know It”. But the words were different. America was shocked to hear these privileged white students of the University of Oklahoma chanting “There will never be a n****r SAE, There will never be a n****r SAE, You can hang them from a tree, but they’ll never hang with me, There will never be a n****r SAE!”

The reaction was swift and relentless. The President of the University, David Boren, could barely contain his anger. He immediately banned the frat from the campus. He gave the members two days to vacate the fraternity house and offered to pay for their bus tickets out of town. The National office of SAE shut down the OU chapter. The football and basketball teams at Oklahoma staged separate protests with the full support of their coaches. The students staged protests and vigils. The leaders of the chant on the bus were expelled, and issued apologies for their actions. The news media from coast to coast were unanimous in their condemnations.

Okema, Oklahoma is not very far from The University of Oklahoma in Norman. Using interstate 40, you can make the trip in less than an hour and a half.

There is also not a lot of difference in hanging someone from a tree and hanging them from a bridge.

 Some would say there is not much difference between 1911 and 2015. Many white people in Okema in 1911 would agree that Black Lives DID NOT Matter then.

How many people on that Sigma Alpha Epsilon bus would agree that Black Lives DON”T matter now?

Martin Luther King Jr. once said that it was important for us to remember that we should love our enemies, but he was glad that Jesus did not say that we should “like” our enemies. He said it was hard to like somebody that disrespected you, someone that discriminated against you, or someone that lynched you. He said it was hard to like somebody that bombed your home, your churches, and killed your children. I can summon my training as a Christian and love those that may hate me, but God knows that I don’t like them. I respect the righteous anger of the Oklahoma President. I believe that it was genuine. I can only wish that it was prevalent. The reality is that those kids on that bus are not alone. There are countless others that share their sentiments and beliefs. They are silent now only because bigotry is no longer socially acceptable.

Like it was one hundred years ago.

In Okema, Oklahoma.