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On this date in 1911, Lawrence Nelson and his mother Laura Nelson, were lynched and hanged from the Old Schoolton Bridge in Oklahoma. There were picnics and postcards were sold to celebrate. #lauranelson #lawrencenelson #strangefruit #lynchings #blackhidstory #blackhistoryeveryday #thingstheydontteachyou #makeamericagreatagain #facebookbannedmeforthis https://www.instagram.com/p/CAm9s_Hpasb/?igshid=d8kdfq7t03dl
On this date in 1911, Lawrence Nelson and his mother Laura Nelson, were lynched and hanged from the Old Schoolton Bridge in Oklahoma. There were picnics and postcards were sold to celebrate. #lauranelson #lawrencenelson #strangefruit #lynchings #blackhidstory #blackhistoryeveryday #thingstheydontteachyou #makeamericagreatagain #facebookbannedmeforthis https://www.instagram.com/p/BjM_bgHB1_N/?igshid=1nskd5qxjznhr
On this date in 1911, Lawrence Nelson and his mother Laura Nelson, were lynched and hanged from the Old Schoolton Bridge in Oklahoma. Postcards were sold to celebrate this glorious day. #lauranelson #lawrencenelson #strangefruit #lynchings #blackhidstory #blackhistoryeveryday #thingstheydontteachyou #makeamericagreatagain
Bearing witness is tough, being politically correct, easy.
I am not one of those who believes that had the photo not been published there would not have been such widespread shock and castigation of the incident. Even without the photo it was a devastating tragedy that shook us all.
No, I am not talking about the photo of the Badaun lynching at all. But of another visual which pops up every time you google 'photos that shook the world'---an image leaps before our eyes like a merciless switch thrown on to transmit electric currents through our collective brain consciousness. I am referring to perhaps the most representative photo of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, which we can conjure now even without seeing it---and it fills us with the same shock and helplessness we felt then, shock and helplessness which galvanised even people who were not career activists out on the streets to protest against a dastardly crime.
Another visual that shocked us in 1994 was James Nachtwey's photo of a Hutu death camp survivor. Nachtwey who shot the Rwandan genocide extensively says this on his website
"I have been a witness, and these pictures are
my testimony. The events I have recorded should
not be forgotten and must not be repeated."
I am often haunted by another image. This one is of little Omayra Sanchez, who was caught in a mudslide following a volcanic eruption near her town of Armero in Colombia in 1985 which caused widespread destruction. Frank Fournier who took the photograph was later criticised for not 'helping' the little girl even as he took the photo. Fournier's response shut many of his critics up: 'I am happy there was some reaction. I would have been sad had nobody cared at all.' The photo helped raise huge funds for the rehabilitation of the people of Armero and neighbouring affected towns.
The last image I am thinking about as I write this blog post is an iconic one from African American Feminist History. It dates from 1911 and captures the lynching of Laura Nelson.
Laura Nelson was lynched on 23 May 1911 In Okemah, Okluskee, Oklahoma. Authorities accused her of killing a deputy sheriff who supposedly stumbled on some stolen goods in her house. The mob raped and dragged Nelson six miles to the Canadian River and hanged her from a bridge. The photo was taken by a white spectator who was part of the motley audience that had gathered that day in Okemah to watch the spectacle. They rolled in on their wagons and brought picnic baskets and children, and later made the photo into a souvenir postcard. Ironic then that the image became a crucial part of the canonical and powerful African American visual history which raised worldwide awareness about the struggle of African American people and women against a system that was both brutally oppressive and a negation of basic human dignity. And in turn strengthened the movement that intended to crush this vile system.
Sound familiar?
