Congratulations to Andra Day on her Grammy win for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media Soundtrack for The United States vs. BIllie Holiday.

When The United States vs. BIllie Holiday opened with the harrowing image of a lynching and the words,

In 1937 a bill to finally ban the lynching of African-Americans was considered.

It did not pass.

I shook my head in disappointment. When the movie ended with the words,

In February 2020, The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act was considered by the Sanate.

It has yet to pass.

I yelled at my television. I did not know of lynchings happening in my life time, so I believe legal action to have taken place and that it had ended. Anti-lynching legislation had failed to pass 200 times and in that time, lynchings had modernized under the guise of lawfulness and in the name justice.

You do not grow up in the South and not know Emmett Till’s name.

I should rephrase that.

I am fortunate to have grown up in the South and had educators who did not fear saying his name and telling his story.

On March 29th, 2022, President Joe Biden signed that Bill with the 14 year old boy’s name on it – a symbol of a long deserved justice for Emmett and for many others.

1900 was the first time the legislation to criminalize lynching was first introduce.

The Springfield Race Riot that destroyed Black homes and businesses and where eight Black men were killed by a white mob took place in 1908. One hundred years later, Barack Obama would stand on the grounds of the Old State Capitol building of this town and announce his presidential candidacy.

Emmett Till was murdered in 1955. Every year that notes a lynching or the failed passing of the legislation feels so far away, yet too much time has passed. 

4,400 African-Americans were brutally taken between 1877 and 1950. We should have cared long ago, and I find that we often need references to feel the impact of such atrocities.

My Inay, born in the Philippines, was born eight years after Emmett was murdered. I didn’t need that reference to care for the lives lost. I did need it to see that in my mother’s lifetime and mine included, justice had not been given and nothing had been done to stop these hate crimes.

And so I come full circle to congratulate, once again, Andra Day on her work in revitalizing Ms. Billie Holiday’s music. The Recording Academy recognizing Andra Day’s work recognizes Billie Holiday’s work (as woman who too deserved justice because. . .well I won’t spoil the movie for you if you haven’t watched it), and the works of many others who used their creativity to speak up against lynching. Ida B. Wells was one of those brilliant talents, whose vigilant and brave journalistic work not only noted those 4,400 souls who were lynched, but her work brought her to the White House in 1898 to urge President McKinley to make lynching a federal crime. That meeting between Ida B. Wells and President McKinley, as you can gather, came to no resolve, but Ida continued the work. Just like Billie Holiday in her song Strange Fruit and just like Andra Day in bringing Holiday’s story into present day homes. We must continue, as Vice President Kamala Harries urged, the work done before us by speaking up when we witness hate crimes.

Below are sources that I referenced as well as a link to The United States vs. Billie Holiday soundtrack, and other stories and articles related to the subject. 

1. The Death of Emmett Till

2. Why Don’t You All Let That Story Die – in other words, why we shouldn’t let Emmett Till’s story die.

3. Springfield Race Riot of 1908

4. The United States vs. Billie Holiday soundtrack on Spotify

5. President Biden and Vice President Harris speak on the signing of the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Bill.

6. Lynchings Long Shadow – a personal story on how the scars of lynching still effect families today.

7. President Biden signs the Anti-Asian Hate Crime Bill

8. The Men who Murdered Ahmaud Arbery are Charged with Hate Crime