44 years later, Bloody Monday gets historic marker - GoDanRiver.com: Danville
"44 years later, Bloody Monday gets historic marker" - "GoDanRiver.com": Danville. This article did not transfer itself with a link, so to see it one must go to the site mentioned above and detailed in a later paragraph. The historic marker, pictured in the article, was established in 2007, but June 10th, next week, will be the 50th anniversary of this ever inexcusably ugly event in my hometown.
The 50th anniversary of this event is receiving national attention. Page 5 of the NYT's Sunday review section has a 2/3rds page article on the events of that day and the Danville newspaper listed above had a longer one. This article suggested above is a follow-up to Sunday's article.
The New York Times had some interesting facts that I was unaware of, particularly the story of a socially prominent white member of the community(Rotary, Danville Golf Club) who was fined and put in jail for criticizing the harshness Judge Aiken's sentencing of the protesters as "inane" as a "sign of petulance"
in a letter. The information seems to have been related to the writer by her father and grandfather who grew up in Danville and it is unclear whether she ever did. So that's probably the reason that the article has one clear factual omission.
It states that the "police chief authorized an all white force of garbagemen to use billy clubs on the protestors", protestors who had been firehosed forcefully through a tunnel under the old courthouse and came out the other side to be savagely beaten. The omission is that police officers supervised and took part in the beatings as well, and even the outrageous fact that several city council members, elected officials, were there with billy clubs as well.
The local press associated with the AP did not report any of this unrest for 38 days, but word spread to other newspapers in Greensboro, N.C and elsewhere, and eventually was picked up by AP and the NYT. Martin Luther King came to Danville several times over the coming months, calling Danville, Virginia and Selma, Alabama the two worst cities in the United States.
My knowledge of this is not just tangential. My somewhat shy always polite mother happened to be President of the YWCA in 1963, the only biracial organization of any size in the city. She knew some of the victims of the beatings and had direct information from them. She contacted our congressman but that was of course useless.
As for my family, there was no question as to our thoughts about all of this ugly racist, beyond racist, behavior. My direct experience was being downtown across from the courthouse a few days before June 10th or maybe the morning of that day, I have no idea at this point,(had ridden my bike down to pay my collected bills for my paper routes at the newspaper headquarters across the street). On the courthouse steps were 50 or so mainly, or almost solely, young people holding a few homemade signs but otherwise just sitting quietly and at times in barely audible tones singing protest songs. Then a group of police came from out of nowhere and attacked the group, which led to mayhem, me barely missing getting run over by fleeing protestors and a policeman on the chase. These protestors were no doubt part of those arrested for which the prayer vigil was being held that day or a few evenings later outside of the courthouse, the prayer vigil that was attacked viciously and led to the name "Bloody Monday".
Again,I could not make the article mentioned in the title link, so to see it and Sunday's article the only option from this post to going to www.godanriver.com. Maybe this event is part of Danville's karma that led to the loss of its major textile mill completely and almost all if not all of its tobacco market and associated processing, and with no viable economic replacements. While now a much much better place in some ways than it was in 1963, it is in an extended period of decline in prosperity, if prosperity is a word that could really apply to much of Danville now, which I actually hope can be reversed over time. It's not impossible. There are still many good people there who are not afraid of work, a mostly reliable infrastructure and fastidiously maintained major roads and parks . As could be expected there is also clearly a racist divide to some extent, but nothing like the past. It's as much economic as it is racist now, but vestiges of the past still remain. Find me a city in the self-righteous Northeast that does not have some of the same issues.
The 50th anniversary of this event is receiving national attention. Page 5 of the NYT's Sunday review section has a 2/3rds page article on the events of that day and the Danville newspaper listed above had a longer one. This article suggested above is a follow-up to Sunday's article.
The New York Times had some interesting facts that I was unaware of, particularly the story of a socially prominent white member of the community(Rotary, Danville Golf Club) who was fined and put in jail for criticizing the harshness Judge Aiken's sentencing of the protesters as "inane" as a "sign of petulance"
in a letter. The information seems to have been related to the writer by her father and grandfather who grew up in Danville and it is unclear whether she ever did. So that's probably the reason that the article has one clear factual omission.
It states that the "police chief authorized an all white force of garbagemen to use billy clubs on the protestors", protestors who had been firehosed forcefully through a tunnel under the old courthouse and came out the other side to be savagely beaten. The omission is that police officers supervised and took part in the beatings as well, and even the outrageous fact that several city council members, elected officials, were there with billy clubs as well.
The local press associated with the AP did not report any of this unrest for 38 days, but word spread to other newspapers in Greensboro, N.C and elsewhere, and eventually was picked up by AP and the NYT. Martin Luther King came to Danville several times over the coming months, calling Danville, Virginia and Selma, Alabama the two worst cities in the United States.
My knowledge of this is not just tangential. My somewhat shy always polite mother happened to be President of the YWCA in 1963, the only biracial organization of any size in the city. She knew some of the victims of the beatings and had direct information from them. She contacted our congressman but that was of course useless.
As for my family, there was no question as to our thoughts about all of this ugly racist, beyond racist, behavior. My direct experience was being downtown across from the courthouse a few days before June 10th or maybe the morning of that day, I have no idea at this point,(had ridden my bike down to pay my collected bills for my paper routes at the newspaper headquarters across the street). On the courthouse steps were 50 or so mainly, or almost solely, young people holding a few homemade signs but otherwise just sitting quietly and at times in barely audible tones singing protest songs. Then a group of police came from out of nowhere and attacked the group, which led to mayhem, me barely missing getting run over by fleeing protestors and a policeman on the chase. These protestors were no doubt part of those arrested for which the prayer vigil was being held that day or a few evenings later outside of the courthouse, the prayer vigil that was attacked viciously and led to the name "Bloody Monday".
Again,I could not make the article mentioned in the title link, so to see it and Sunday's article the only option from this post to going to www.godanriver.com. Maybe this event is part of Danville's karma that led to the loss of its major textile mill completely and almost all if not all of its tobacco market and associated processing, and with no viable economic replacements. While now a much much better place in some ways than it was in 1963, it is in an extended period of decline in prosperity, if prosperity is a word that could really apply to much of Danville now, which I actually hope can be reversed over time. It's not impossible. There are still many good people there who are not afraid of work, a mostly reliable infrastructure and fastidiously maintained major roads and parks . As could be expected there is also clearly a racist divide to some extent, but nothing like the past. It's as much economic as it is racist now, but vestiges of the past still remain. Find me a city in the self-righteous Northeast that does not have some of the same issues.
posted by John Borden at 11:26 AM
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