Black History Month is behind us, but work continues to combat injustice
During Black History Month, a former death row inmate reminded us all that we can still strive for justice, love and forgiveness even amid societal injustice. On Feb. 18, 2024, the Boulder County Branch of the NAACP held a Freedom Fund Celebration for the community at CU’S Macky Auditorium. On that winter afternoon, the auditorium filled with attendees ready to watch an R&b/rock performance from public defender turned professional musician Danielle Ponder, and to hear a powerful story from keynote speaker Anthony Ray Hinton.
I happened to be there by chance. As a University of Colorado Student, studying political science, I took an internship with the Campaign of Representative Junie Joseph. On that day she assigned me the job of handing out flyers to attendees of the event. I dutifully passed out her flyers to all attendees and expected to then return to my house to hang out with my friends and do my homework. To my surprise, Rep. Joseph insisted that I come in and join the rest of the attendees. I had not considered the event beyond my assignment of handing out flyers. Now, I am so grateful to have experienced the life story of Mr. Hinton.
In 1985, Mr. Hinton was wrongfully convicted for the murder of two restaurant managers in Alabama based on the testimony of state-employed ballistics experts who linked the bullets from the crime scene to a gun belonging to Mr. Hinton’s mother. In his book, Mr. Hinton recounts the injustices that he experienced within the Alabama criminal justice system. He recalled that after his arrest, a white detective told him, “I don’t care whether you did or didn’t do it. In fact, I believe you didn’t do it. But it doesn’t matter. If you didn’t do it, one of your brothers did. And you’re going to take the rap.” The detective continued, “I can give you five reasons why they are going to convict you. Number one, you’re black. Number two, a white man is gonna say you shot him. Number three, you’re gonna have a white district attorney. Number four, you’re gonna have a white judge. And number five, you’re gonna have an all-white jury.”
At the event, Mr. Hinton told his story with dignity and grace as he further detailed the devastating experience of realizing the truth of the matter. He had no influence in the outcome of his trial for a variety of reasons: He could not afford a proper attorney, the stateprovided attorney was incapable of formulating a proper defense, and he was fighting against prosecutors, a judge and a jury who were all white.
As I sat there hanging on to every word from Mr. Hinton, it hit me that a judicial system that does not proportionately represent the population over which it governs is prone to creating unjust outcomes for minority groups. It is for this reason that Mr. Hinton was wrongly convicted to death and was imprisoned on death row for 30 years, and as he himself explained to us, that is the same reason why in the state of Alabama, African Americans make up almost half of the incarcerated population, while only making up around 25% of the total population.
Even through all the pain and suffering Mr. Hinton was able to see the common humanity in his fellow man. He recounted his relationship with a fellow death row inmate who was also a Klu Klux Klan member. That particular inmate was sentenced to death for killing a black man. Despite learning this fact, instead of blaming his friend the KKK member for killing the black man, Mr. Hinton levied the sentence at the feet of our society that taught the KKK Member to hate and dared to sentence him to death for acting on that community ethos.
Black History Month is behind us, but the work continues, to elevate our community and to combat injustice in all its forms. Ultimately, as community members, we must ask ourselves what small steps we can take to join Mr. Hinton in his battle against racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.
Nolan Helmstetter is a CU student and intern for state Rep. Junie Joseph.