{"id":2445,"date":"2021-04-09T02:03:32","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T06:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=2445"},"modified":"2021-09-23T02:04:29","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T06:04:29","slug":"a-scholar-drawing-attention-to-racial-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/a-scholar-drawing-attention-to-racial-terror\/","title":{"rendered":"A scholar drawing attention to \u2018racial terror\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Dr. Charles L. Chavis Jr.<\/strong>

<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

UMES\u2019 social justice series speaker highlights the healing still needed<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Friday, April 9, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles L. Chavis Jr. calls himself a \u201cscholar of racial terror\u201d and brought the perspective of a college \u201cprofessor, historian and peacebuilder\u201d to an installment of UMES’ year-long social justice speaker series. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavis’ April 8 topic was the \u201cTulsa Massacre 100 Years Later: the Legacy of Racial Terror in America.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His \u201cvirtual\u201d guest lecture began with: \u201cWhy is the Tulsa Massacre so relevant\u201d today? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to look no further than what is unfolding before our eyes,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavis was referring to the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged in the May 25, 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, during a routine arrest.  The televised trial of Chauvin, who is white, began March 29. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’ve reached a point where I recognize the saturation with this spectacle we’re watching is not healthy,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late May \/ early June 1921, a group of angry white vigilantes stormed a segregated Black section of Tulsa, Okla., burning much of the middle-class community to the ground, an act that left hundreds dead and no one accountable.  Historians note the attackers even used planes to drop bombs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can draw a direct line between \u2026 Tulsa to the events we are witnessing today,\u201d Chavis said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An effort to reconcile what happened in Oklahoma during that dark period of American history has attracted the attention of social justice advocates, who see parallels today in deadly confrontations between police and Blacks over minor incidents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was that overarching theme Chavis wove into his hour-long presentation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstead of a criminal individual being tried, the black man is tried,\u201d he said.  \u201cThis same trope and these same words are spewed out of the mouths of (lawyers) throughout the history of anti-blackness in this country.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstead of justice working for black people,\u201d Chavis said, \u201cit’s always working against us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavis said he’s concluded there’s a connection between \u201cwhite domestic terrorism\u201d directed at blacks and economic well-being. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe white mob spirit emerges boldly to stifle black success\u201d in the business and education worlds, he said, with the goal to \u201ccontrol black bodies \u2026 and stoke fear.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are questions we have to be honest about,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavis has emerged as an influential voice in the region’s social justice dialogue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An assistant professor of conflict resolution and history at George Mason University, Chavis also is director of the John Mitchell, Jr. Program for History, Justice, and Race at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He serves simultaneously as national co-chair for the U.S. Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Movement and as vice-chair of the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  Dr. Marshall F. Stevenson Jr., dean of UMES’ School of Education, Social Sciences and The Arts, represents the university on that state panel and invited Chavis to participate in the social justice speaker series. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavis is co-editor of \u201cFor the Sake of Peace: Africana Perspectives on Racism, Justice, and Peace in America.\u201d  He earned his doctorate in history from Morgan State University in 2018, writing his dissertation on the 1931 lynching of Matthew Williams in nearby Salisbury, which he is working to convert into a book due out in early 2022<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lynchings and other acts directed at terrorizing Blacks, he noted, were and are not confined to the Deep South. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavis said he doesn’t believe a verdict in the Floyd-Chauvin trial will be transformative.  Much more work toward understanding and reconciliation needs to be done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt what point,\u201d he asked, \u201cis holistic justice going to be part of this conversation?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m done talking about the trauma unless justice is on the table,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UMES\u2019 social justice series speaker highlights the healing still needed Friday, April 9, 2021 Charles L. Chavis Jr. calls himself a \u201cscholar of racial terror\u201d and brought the perspective of a college \u201cprofessor, historian and peacebuilder\u201d to an installment of UMES’ year-long social justice speaker series.  Chavis’ April 8 topic was the \u201cTulsa Massacre 100…Read more A scholar drawing attention to \u2018racial terror\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2446,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-2445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=2445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}