by Dan Perkins

Last summer, the United States Senate peeled back the blanket of time to reflect upon its own failure to respond to seven decades of lynchings in America.  In a bold, but controversial move, 89 U.S. Senators co-sponsored Senate Resolution 39 that was an apology to the victims of lynchings and their descendants for the Senate's refusal to pass anti-lynching legislation.  (Click here to see dib's coverage of the Senate's Apology.)

During that historic Senate session, reports of lynching were recounted.  One of those stories involved an African American named Anthony P. Crawford, who was lynched 90 years ago, on October 21, 2006.  One of his great-great granddaughters, Doria Dee Johnson, of Evanston, Illinois, was in attendance to hear the Senate's apology.

Johnson, who has devoted considerable time and energy to learning about her great-great grandfather and to ensuring that his life and death are not forgotten, was eager to her the Senate acknowledge its role in perpetuating lynchings.

Anthony Crawford was born a slave in 1865, the property of Ben and Rebecca Crawford of Abbeville, South Carolina.

Anthony Crawford received an education during Reconstruction; and reportedly did well academically, even though he had to walk 14 miles roundtrip, to and from school.

After he completed his schooling, Crawford went to work as a laborer for his former owner. 

In time, Crawford distinguished himself as a successful farmer and civic leader. 

In October 1894, Crawford was the Assistant Marshall in a grand parade that featured as many as 2,000 people assembled by their trades.  The Honorable George W. Murray, the only black U.S. Congressman, was the guest speaker.

In December 1904, a local Abbeville newspaper printed an article about Crawford's success with cotton.  The article proclaimed,

By all accounts, Anthony Crawford was an upstanding member of his community - a successful businessman, family man and church leader.  He built a school on his property where his children and other black children in Abbeville were educated.

Anthony Crawford eventually became the wealthiest black man in Abbeville, but his success made him a marked man.

On October 21, 1916, Anthony Crawford had a dispute with a white man who reportedly wanted to buy Crawford's cotton at a price that was below market.  The two men got into an argument and Crawford reportedly cursed the man in public, something no black man dared to do, if he wanted to live. 

A fight broke out between the two men and Crawford was taken to jail.  A crowd gathered, but the local sheriff convinced the men that he would take care of matters.  Crawford was able to post bail and the sheriff allowed him to sneak out of a side door, but Crawford was spotted as he tried to make his way.  A mob of between 200 and 400 people caught Crawford and beat him savagely.  After he was beaten, they tied him to a wagon and dragged his body around town to show other blacks how "insolent" blacks were treated.  The crowd then took Crawford's body to the fairgrounds, strung it up on a tree and riddled it with bullets. 

"Although we have heard his body was thrown on someone’s lawn, we have yet to locate his grave," wrote his great-great granddaughter, Doria Dee Johnson in an account provided on the family's website. "The family was ordered to vacate their land, wind up business, and get out of town. They did just that."

News of the attack filled the newspapers and the governor of South Carolina, Richard I. Manning, ordered an investigation.  He invited an representative of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to investigate the matter and report his findings. The NAACP found that not only were the Crawfords threatened, but so too were other black families and business owners.  In fact, persistent and credible threats forced many black families to leave Abbeville.

The vicious attack on Anthony Crawford not only devastated his family, but also the local black community.  Even members of the white community were shocked by the attack.  Crawford had lent money to white farmers in the area who needed financial assistance between harvests.

On the 90th anniversary of Crawford's senseless and brutal death, it is constructive for Americans to focus on three lessons that come out of the tragedy.

Anthony Crawford's death, and the subsequent dislocation of his family, are the direct result of governments failing to uphold the values, principles and laws upon which our nation was founded.

This monumental failure of government on the local, state and federal levels speaks volumes to the fragility of our democracy and our way of life. 

Wherever governments exist without accountability, you have conditions that are ripe for corruption and eventual anarchy.  That was true a hundred years ago, and it remains true today.  It is true in Iraq, just as it was true in New Orleans.

If the state of South Carolina had intervened swiftly, decisively and constitutionally, its citizens would have known and understood that ours is a nation of laws, and land where murderous mob action is not tolerated.

Instead, the citizens of South Carolina observed that there are multiple tiers of justice in America: a justice for the rich and powerful, and another justice for the poor and disenfranchised; a justice for the socially accepted, and another for those who are reviled by those who are socially accepted.

Lynchings were performed to suppress the social, economic and political advancement of African Americans.  Only four states in our nation do not have documented cases of lynching.  The state with the greatest number of documented lynchings is Mississippi, followed by Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee.

These sanctioned acts of terror were designed to restrict not only the actions of the despised, who were most often African Americans, but they were designed to restrict aspirations as well.  Lynchings were designed to inflict both psychological and physical terror.

The multi-tiered America of 1916, which was fashioned by terrorism, compels us in 2006 to examine how well our society today reflects our stated ideals; and whether those ideals are worth upholding. 

In an era where politicians proclaim family-values but pursue little boys and preach integrity while lining their own pockets, it is easy to become cynical and despondent.  But we are in danger if we allow that to occur.  Just as corruption, apathy and cynicism helped destroy the promise of Reconstruction, they also threaten the promise of our current democracy.

If our ideals are to survive and remain guiding principles, then each of us must do our part to honor them - to fight injustice and corruption wherever they exist.

Anthony Crawford's success is not a condition that most Americans associate with black people.

That was true in 1916, and it's still true today.

While his success is praiseworthy, it is by no means exceptional.  Anthony Crawford's success is reflective of what aspiring individuals of any race can accomplish if they have the vision, drive, skill and resources to pursue the right opportunities.

Despite what we see depicted on the large and small screens, African Americans are not dysfunctional by nature.  What we are witnessing when we see dysfunction in the black community is the consequences of living in what arguably is a dysfunctional nation.

Anthony Crawford's brutal death was a deliberate act to destroy the social and economic fabric of an entire community, by individuals who were profoundly dysfunctional.  Because America was dysfunctional at the end of the Reconstruction era, just as it was during the nation's founding, black aspirations were clipped by fear, assertiveness and self-expression were drowned by pessimism and despair, and self-reliance gave way to despondency. 

The light and joy of multiple generations were brutally crushed by one single act of savagery in Abbeville, but that savagery was perpetrated thousands of time over seven decades.  While the psychological, emotional and spiritual costs are impossible to measure, they far exceed the material losses incurred by the Crawford family and countless other families across America - even though those losses were substantial.

Decades of Jim Crow laws, reinforced by lynchings, ripped the soul of America, and all Americans, not just black Americans, continue to pay the price.  While many individuals and institutions contributed to that rupture, few have taken responsibility for their actions.

It is remarkable that approximately 10-percent of U.S. Senators chose not to sign the resolution acknowledging the Senate's failure to pass anti-lynching legislation. 

Even in a case involving something as black and white as lynching, a case that clearly distinguishes between good and evil, a handful of U.S. Senators refused to stand on the side of good.  Thankfully, the majority of senators took the moral high-ground with respect to the resolution.

Anthony Crawford is a man worthy of our attention and praise, not just because of his business acumen, but because of what he did with his wealth.

Crawford provided not only for his family, but also others.

He built a school to educate local black children.  He was a leader in his church; and he had other civic involvements.

Black youths today need to know of Anthony Crawford and other black men who aspired to greatness despite their circumstances.  They need to know that men in their race achieved true greatness despite humble beginnings.

They need to believe in possibilities and they need to be encouraged to pursue worthy goals. 

As more African Americans achieve entrepreneurial success, and share that success with others, many of the problems that currently plague our community will subside, which will be a good thing - not only for the black community, but for America as well.

While community-based and community-focused enterprises hold great promise for our long-term social and economic success, black entrepreneurs today can enjoy a society that is more inclusive than at any other time in our nation's history.

Many corporations in America have embraced the concept of supplier diversity, which is a practice that encourages the purchase of goods and services from businesses that are owned by minorities, women and other targeted groups.

Supplier diversity programs afford organizations the opportunity to recycle revenues back into the communities from which they generate significant amounts of wealth.  These programs are not corporate giveaways, as some presume, but rather acknowledgements of an inter-dependency of the corporate community and diverse communities. 

Economic development initiatives, such as supplier diversity programs, help remedy the disruptions and dysfunction that resulted when individuals, like Anthony Crawford, were denied the opportunity to participate in the American mainstream.  Corporations  need to understand that reality and consumers need to support those corporations that act on that understanding.

Men like Anthony Crawford not only supported the social and economic fabric of their communities, but they provided a wonderful example of what is possible for all Americans with vision, commitment and prayer.

A Life Worth Remembering

Anthony Crawford's life is a witness to the enormous possibility of America.

His death reminds us of an America that was and must never return.

If we are not mindful of both, we diminish our prospects for a great future and increase our likelihood of repeating the past.

The End