Dateline: Dec. 25,1956, 9:15 p.m. The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and his family were asleep when 16 sticks of dynamite exploded inside his home. In seconds, the whole house was a pile of rubble. Amazingly, the leader of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and his family members survived with no serious injuries. The only other intact item? The mattress upon which he slept.
Archival film in the documentary “Eyes On The Prize” captures the feisty and brave Shuttlesworth standing in front of the rubble recounting his response to the police officers who told him it would be best if he left town. The Rev. Shuttlesworth understood the threat, calling out “the Klansman police,” saying, “You go back and tell your Klan brethren that if God can keep me through this, then I’m here for the duration.”
For the record, the Birmingham civil rights leader was right — the Ku Klux Klan did dynamite his house, and many of the police officers on the scene afterwards were Klan members. There’s a linked history of law enforcement and white supremacy that harkens back to the time when former enslaved African Americans were circumscribed by law and custom. Under the so-called Black Codes, it was a crime for Black residents to be unemployed — a perfect environment for white supremacists to act out their hatred as official or unofficial authority figures.
I know this history, and yet it was still upsetting that the National Guard summoned to D.C. for inauguration security had to be checked out by the FBI and that at least 10 were dismissed because of possible ties to right-wing extremist groups. Recently, Michael German, veteran FBI agent, acknowledged that the Justice Department warned him years ago about white supremacist cops when he went undercover. German told NPR, “It has long been known in law enforcement that there are police officers who sympathize with these groups and associate with these groups. “
Black Americans — and other marginalized groups — have often borne the brunt of these rogue cops, who’ve been able to operate behind the blue wall of silence. But certainly, the last four years, with former President Donald Trump talking about good people on both sides, many have now boldly come out of the shadows.
To date, more than 30 military, plus former and current law enforcement officers, have been discovered to be among the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol less than a month ago. Some have been arrested. Others are under investigation after being identified for taking on planning and leadership roles in the attach that left five dead, including one cop. Five white people, to be clear. Also under life and death threats: most of the members of Congress, the lawmakers’ staffers and even former Vice President Mike Pence, who inspired screams of “Hang Mike Pence!”
Now those who have believed the brutality and danger of white supremacy to be a problem only for folks of color know otherwise. No more pretending white supremacy is not deeply embedded into our society. We can say that’s not who we are as Americans, but it’s clear it’s exactly who some of us are. To “confront and defeat” it, as President Joe Biden urged in his inaugural address, will be a heavy, painful lift.
Maybe it’s no coincidence that the several inaugural ceremonies featured some variation of the Christian hymn Amazing Grace — a hymn whose most familiar refrain is “was blind, but now I see.”
