For this week in class, we read the story "the Lynching of Jube Benson". This story was about a doctor telling his friend how he had seen a lynching in person. He starts by talking about Jube, an honest servant who served a family and one day, their daughter, Annie, was found raped and murdered and all she said was "That black...", and without finishing died in the doctors arms. Before anyone knew who it was, everybody started yelling that it was Jube, so they went out to the woods to find him. When they found him, he asked the doctor to help him, but the doctor, who was friend, didn't believe him and the angry mob took them to where Annie's dead body was. He pleaded that it wasn't him but they didn't believe him. When they had him hung already, before to cut the rope, his brother comes in yelling that they found the real rapist. But by the time they got there, someone had cut the rope and Jube was dead. Turns out, it was a white guy, Tom Skinner, who had covered himself up in mud, to disguise himself as a negro. The doctor, when to examine Annie's fingernails found white skin and brown hair of a white person. He then realized Jube was killed innocently.
This short story relates to hundreds of people that this happened to. Many African Americans were killed or punished for crimes they didn't do. They were almost always falsely accused and no one ever had evidence to what they did. A lot of white men would take mud and cover themselves up to look like a "negro", so they wouldn't punish them.
Mercedes- This blog gives a great summary of The Lynching of Jube Benson. In the first paragraph you present the story line in a complete and concise manner. Its very suspenseful and you really show that in the way you talk about the sequence of events scene by scene. I'm glad you relate the lynching that happens in the story to other incidents where African Americans were punished for white people's crimes in the second paragraph. I wonder if you could broaden that idea even more. Maybe you could talk about how these crimes happened in the context of a really racist society. You could discuss whether this kind of action was socially acceptable or not. Do you think people of color are still being punished for white peoples crimes today?
ReplyDeleteI would also like to hear more of your own opinions on the story. How did it make you feel to read it? What happens in the story is pretty horrific and I know that it stirs up a lot of emotions, at least for me.
I think this blog is a really good start to a great piece of writing. The summary of the story is good and I think you could take it farther by placing the story in a social and historical context as well as by letting the reader know your own thoughts and feelings after reading the story.