Since the emergence of the highly publicized “Jena 6” trial, there have been two incidents on college campuses in which nooses were hung, intended to serve as messages of intolerance to Black students and faculty.

Both incidents at the University of Maryland, and Columbia University, appear to be copycats of the Jena 6 incident. What is not apparent are the motives of the individuals who have anonymously displayed nooses at these campuses. Perhaps they are “innocent” jokes, intended to agitate the Black population, evoke reactionary protests or forums calling for a day of resistance.

These nooses remind us that through the civil rights movement, integration, and even assimilation, there is much progress to be made. Just as Holocaust survivors urge future generations of Jews to “never forget”, we must also remember our history and honor the struggle and resilience of our ancestors.

Never forget about Mary Turner. She was a woman from Valdosta, Georgia, who in 1918, after the unjust lynching of her husband, vowed to make sure that those responsible for the murder of her husband were brought to justice. A lynch mob found Turner’s remarks to be “unwise” and sought to teach her a lesson. Turner, 8-months pregnant, had her ankles ties together and was hung upside down from a tree. After pouring gasoline all over her clothes, one man, using a very sharp knife, slit open her stomach, letting an infant fall freely from her womb. Before releasing hundreds of bullets into Turner’s body, the infant’s head was crushed under the boot of one of the lynch mob members.

The most disturbing aspect to this account is that it is not fabricated, nor is it unique. In a book, “Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America”, readers are exposed to the ugly truth about lynching, and the extent to which racism ran rampant in this country less than a century ago.

Maybe the people responsible for hanging these nooses aren’t even White, maybe they are simply ignorant to the violent and deplorable history of lynching in this country and have a predisposition to be “politically incorrect”. Or maybe their plan is more sinister, and their actions serve as a reminder that history unlearned is bound to repeat itself.

-Jazmyne Young