America’s war against Black men must stop

I was planning to write a column for Easter Sunday as a way to pay homage to Dr. Martin Luther King on the anniversary of his assassination. But I could not — the horrors broadcast all week from the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer charged with the gruesome killing of George Floyd, filled my head and my heart. Dr. King and Floyd — their senseless deaths by violence bear similarities that tell a devastating, and too often sadly recurring story.

There has always been a war against Black men in America — from the early days of slavery during which Black men were brutalized and defenseless to protect their women from being raped or their children from being sold.

History has shown that any time Black men tried to forge a better life for their families by building their own communities, they were deemed “too up

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The question of how to keep Black men “in check” and deferential began with the proliferation of lynchings. Centuries later, Black men still crowd our

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Phone: 978-458-7100 prisons for even the pettiest of crimes. Today we confront the odious concept of “qualified immunity,” a disgraceful shield that protects law enforcement who have killed Black civilians.

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