The Danziger Bridge Shooting

Consider the following:

  1. that justice took over 6 years to be realized
  2. and that it had to be accomplished through the federal government as opposed to the state criminal justice system.
  3. and that Civil Rights violations were the prosecuted offenses (much like Rodney King)

Report from NPR News:

  • This video from CNN was created at the time of the launch of the federal investigation.

    • You Are Part of the World

    via flickr.com

    This print was created by Chicago-based artist Billy Dee for the "Art Against Incarceration" Show, sponsored by Project NIA. He is also the illustrator behind the Prison Industrial Complex.

    In Swahili, NIA means "with purpose." Project NIA’s mission is to dramatically reduce the reliance on arrest, detention, and incarceration for addressing youth crime and to instead promote the use of restorative and transformative practices, a concept that relies on community-based alternatives.

    What does the title of this illustration mean to you, personally?

    Reconstruction: The Second Civil War

    via pbs.org

    Important terms to know:

    1. Black Codes
    2. Carpetbagger
    3. 1866 Civil Rights Act
    4. 1875 Civil Rights Act
    5. Election of 1876
    6. "Forty Acres and a Mule"
    7. Freedmen's Bureau
    8. impeach
    9. Ku Klux Klan
    10. Presidential Reconstruction
    11. Radical Reconstruction
    12. Sea Islands (Georgia)
    13. sharecropping
    14. "Solid South"
    15. 14th Amendment
    16. 15th Amendment

    What about us? What do we get?

    Consider the following dialogue between Col. Robert Shaw and Pvt. Trip in the film, Glory. Why do you think that Trip is so reluctant to carry the American flag into battle?

    COLONEL SHAW:
    - Trip, isn't it?

    TRIP:
    - Yes, sir.

    COLONEL SHAW:
    You fought very well yesterday, Trip. Sergeant Rawlins has recommended that you receive a commendation.

        TRIP:                   
    Yes, sir?

        COLONEL SHAW:                   
    Yes, and I think you should bear the regimental colors.

        TRIP:                                  
    Well--

    COLONEL SHAW:                                     
    lt's considered quite an honor. Why not?

    TRIP:                                             
    Well, I'm...wantin' to say somethin', sir, but l--

    COLONEL SHAW:                                                        
    Go ahead.

    TRIP:                 
    AIl right. See—I ain't fightin' this war for you, sir.

    COLONEL SHAW:                                                        
    I see.

    TRIP:                 
    I mean, what's the point? Ain't nobody gonna win. lt's just gonna go on and on.

    COLONEL SHAW:                                                                           
    - It can't go on forever.

    TRIP:
    - But ain't nobody gonna win.

    COLONEL SHAW:                                                                           
    Somebody's gonna win.

    TRIP:                   
    Who? I mean, you get to go on back to Boston to a big house and all that.
    What about us?
    What do we get?

    COLONEL SHAW:                                                                           
    Well, you won't get anything if we lose. What do you want to do?

        TRIP:                                   
    I don't know, sir. It stinks, I suppose.

    COLONEL SHAW:                                                                           
    Yeah, it stinks bad.

    TRIP:    
    And we all covered up in it.
    Ain't nobody clean.
    Be nice to get clean though.

    COLONEL SHAW:                  
    How do we do that?

    TRIP:   
    We ante up and kick in, sir.
    But I still don't wanna carry your flag.

    What were the main issues the country had to face after the Civil War? Think about how you might solve these problems.