It happened in 1863 when a man named Gordon escaped slavery to volunteer to fight for his own freedom in the Union Army.  Gordon, who was renamed “Whipped Peter” took off his shirt to wear the Union blues and the maze of whippings he had received during slavery was a visual map of cruelty across his back.  Southerners had claimed slavery wasn’t destructive and cruel.  They argued that the enslaved thought of their masters and mistresses as beloved family. Books, articles, testimonies and abolitionists who spoke against owning human beings were dismissed, ridiculed and denigrated by pro-slavery propaganda.

In trying to change the heart of the nation that slavery was wrong, pro-slavery was winning until Gordon’s back was photographed and widely circulated throughout the nation.  No one could deny the evidence of raised scarring of his back from severe whippings received when he was enslaved. Furthermore, Gordon shared his story that he escaped from the Louisiana plantation of John and Bridget Lyons.  They held him and 40 other people in slavery according to the 1869 census.  Gordon had been beaten so severely by the overseer that he spent two months in bed in a painful recovery.  When he was well enough to run, he took onions and smeared them on his body so the hounds couldn’t follow his scent and he ran over 49 miles in 10 days before reaching Union soldiers stationed in Baton Rouge.  His bravery and his photograph changed the course of the abolition movement and helped convince the nation that slavery was wrong.

Another pivotal moment was the 1955 murder of young 14-year-old Emmitt Till in Mississippi because of a white woman who told her husband and brother-in-law that Till whistled at her.  Till, born and raised in Chicago, was visiting his uncle and cousins for the summer, and did not know the required behavior between races.  He had offended a white woman, and he would later be dragged from his uncles’ home, beaten and his body wrapped in wire with a gin stone to weigh it down.  Till’s body was never supposed to be found, and later the local sheriff tried to bury the body in Mississippi.  His mother, Mrs. Mamie Till Mobley, had to promise to have a closed casket funeral so that the body would be released to her. When her murdered son arrived in Chicago, she immediately opened the casket for viewing because she wanted “the world to see what they did to my son.”  The grotesque photos of the swollen, bloated, murdered boy exposed the conditions that Black people suffered and changed the trajectory of the civil rights movement. Literally all around the world, people saw the evidence of hate that did not spare even a young, Black child.  Till could only be identified by his father’s ring on his finger, since he no longer looked human. A mother’s bravery and her murdered son’s photos helped an entire race move closer to freedom, justice and more equality.

Now in contemporary times, increased technology has further advanced the cause of justice by capturing the reality of too many Black lives.  Videos, so many videos of Black women and men being murdered have gone viral.  These videos have circled the world, capturing the immediate pain and agony of Black people being killed solely because of the color of their skin and because Black lives have continued to matter so little in America.

There have been so many deaths. The list is so long. The names so many and every name, just like every life, is precious.  The circumstances are so tragic. Videos captured it all and replayed it over and over and over again at a time when the COVID 19 pandemic swept through and we were all at home, paused enough in our lives, to see and fully feel all of these horrible videos of murdered victims.  These deaths have not stopped, but certainly in 2020, Brianna Taylor and George Floyd were two of the most gruesome deaths.

It was the death of teenager Trayvon Martin that ignited the Black Lives Matter movement and it was the video of George Floyd that once again proved the importance of technology in the service of truth.  Modern day propagandists tried to deny the racial motivations for all these deaths, but failed. From 1863 to 2022, our truths are captured for all to see. This Black History Month 2022, we express our appreciation for the brave generations who gave their lives for us all and whose suffering was publically displayed to advance the cause of freedom for us all.  Their sacrifices led to Black health and all of our wellness.  To view an interactive display of the names, and circumstances of Blacks killed by racists, go to: https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2020/know-their-names/