A
Broadcast Documentary Feature
Produced by Bitter Fruit Productions and Turtle Island Productions
©
2003 Bitter Fruit Productions
Lynching
has never been the focus of a feature-length documentary, which is troubling
given the host of questions the phenomenon has left us with. What drives any
person to lynch another human being? How can such inhumanity exist in a country
founded on the ideals of equality and justice for all? Isn’t lynching behind
us as a country at this point? Filmmakers Gode Davis and James M. Fortier seek
completion funding to answer these questions. American
Lynching will chronicle the story of lynching in America, its significant
role in our history, the social dynamics that brought it about, and the
difficult truth that lynching still lives in our midst.
To
lynch means to execute or punish violently, without a lawful trial. The act
implies mob action, often involving several perpetrators. Lynchings could be
hideous spectacles conducted in a festive atmosphere attended by churchgoing
people – or clandestine affairs conducted in the dark of night. They happened
in the Deep South and in Northern states, many places people don’t typically
associate with lynching. However varied their grisly details, they all share one
thing – a place in the American soul.
In
1905, James Elbert Cutler observed, “Lynching is a criminal practice that is
peculiar to the United States.” While this may be more accurate as a
description of lynch mobs, to study lynching is to witness firsthand how the
very strengths of America are also the seeds of her weakness. In this troubling
and fascinating truth lies our theme. American
Lynching will demonstrate how lynch mobs, far more prevalent in the U.S.
than other countries, stem from the inherent American tension between
individualism and conformity – a tension that will always be with us. Put
another way, lynching in America is a story about “Us versus the Other,” or
more specifically, the abuse of power by a free yet conforming majority whose
political agendas, racist beliefs, and fear and ignorance led them to commit or
condone atrocities against fellow citizens who didn’t fit their definition of
valued human beings.
American
Lynching
is the story of Juan Bonilla Flores, 97, who at age 12 witnessed his father and
14 others rounded up by local white ranchers and corrupted Texas Rangers before
being marched naked through the Texas desert and massacred for being successful
ranchers. It is the story of Saxe Joiner, a “mulatto” Civil War era slave
lynched for promising to protect a young white woman from the Yankees. American
Lynching is H. James Cameron’s story too – seconds away from being
lynched when a voice in the crowd saved his life.
And for those who believe lynching is dead and gone, American
Lynching is the story of Leonard Gakinya, a Kenyan immigrant. After filing
two complaints accusing local white policemen of making death threats against
him, Leonard was found hanging from a tower. The date? October 2, 2002.
Equally
faithful to American tradition, American Lynching is also about redemption. It’s the story of Rev.
Joseph Martin Dawson, a courageous Southern Baptist minister who preached
against lynching to a congregation that included known lynchers and members of
the Ku Klux Klan. It was these brave individuals – perhaps a minister like
Rev. Dawson, a writer like Mark Twain, an activist such as Ida B. Wells, or a
sheriff such as Harold G. Davis – who chose not
to conform, who chose to stand up against a lynch mob and single-handedly
changed the course of history.