News — Georgia

The Battle of Savannah, Georgia, which occurred between September 16 and October 18, 1779, became one of the bloodiest battles during the American Revolutionary War. At the time, British forces numbering 3,200 troops had occupied Savannah, then the capital of Georgia, for a year.  They were challenged by 600 Continental troops led by General Benjamin Lincoln who were supported by 3,500 French soldiers led by First Lieutenant Count d’Estaing, including 800 troops from Saint-Domingue (later Haiti) and other French Caribbean colonies.  The French had agreed to ally with the American Revolutionary forces following the royal ordinance issued by Louis XVI, the King of France, on March 12, 1779.

D’Estaing’s troops were mainly composed of colonial regiments coming from various locations such as Guadeloupe, Martinique, or Saint-Domingue. The 800 men from the French Caribbean colonies were organized into a regiment called Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue. These soldiers were des gens de couleurs libres (free men of color) who voluntarily joined the French colonial forces. The gens de couleur were mixed-race men of African and European origin from Saint-Domingue.  They were born free and thus were distinct from free slaves or affranchis, who were born enslaved or became enslaved during their lives and then freed themselves or were freed. This distinction allowed the gens de couleur a higher social and political in the French colonial West Indies. According to the 1685 French Black Code, they had the same rights and privileges as the white colonial population.  In practice, however, strong discrimination by white French colonial residents impeded the gens de couleurs from fully exercising them.

Nevertheless, due to their in-between status, some men joined the Chasseurs-Volontaires formed after the March 12, 1779 royal ordinance. They became part of the French command which supported the Continental Army in Savannah.  In fact, the gens de couleurs outnumbered the 500 American troops at the Battle of Savannah. Their role in the battle was also significant because they were sent in as scouts before the beginning of the hostilities on September 8, 1779. During the course of the battle, they were considered one of the most homogeneous and efficient allied group, fighting the English troops with obstinacy and boldness. But the knowledge the British had concerning the American plan of attack, due to a leak of information given by American deserters, impeded any chance of victory. The Chasseurs-Volontaires military group represented a large part of the 168 killed and 411 wounded soldiers in the French ranks following the battle.

On October 8, 2007, a memorial statue was unveiled in Savannah dedicated to the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue during the Battle of Savannah.  The memorial pays tribute to the significant role these soldiers had during the Revolutionary War and recognizes the support they gave to the founding of the United States.

It was around Christmas of 1993 when the niece of attorney Roy Miller from Macon, Georgia was given the new edition of Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictionary. But by March the following year when Miller visited his 13-year-old niece, he realized she looked “sad” and “depressed”. She told him that she didn’t want the dictionary anymore.

Knowing how excited she was when she first received the dictionary bought from a grocery store in Macon, Georgia, Miller was shocked by her change of attitude, so he was determined to know why. His niece told him that she wasn’t comfortable with the definition of the N-word.

The Funk & Wagnalls dictionary’s definition of the N-word was: “nigger n. A negro or member of any dark-skinned people; a vulgar and offensive term (See Negro).”

“When I read the definition, I was outraged. I immediately realized that the old definition that applied the N-word to any race had changed,” Miller said, according to Black News. “The change only gave a description, not a definition. It merely suggested to the reader that if you don’t know what a Nigger is, just look at a Negro or dark-skinned person and you’ll find out.”

“This definition could never apply to an innocent Black child,” he continued. “The term ‘nigger’ had belittled and confused my niece, causing her to question her identity. I asked myself how Funk & Wagnalls could justify in its 1993 edition that whatever vulgar and offensive things that niggers are supposedly known to do could only apply to a Negro or dark-skinned person (including an innocent Black child).”

Miller, who was all for justice and racial equality, went on to ask several of his Black, White, Hispanic, and Asian friends what they thought of the definition, and they all agreed that it is “degrading.” The Black attorney subsequently wrote to Funk & Wagnall on March 17, 1994, stating why the word should be removed. He outlined the negative impact of the word, particularly on children – not only Black children but children of all races.

“Why confuse a child of any color with this definition? Children are pure at heart and not responsible for bad relationships of the past. No child should ever have to wonder whether or not he or she is a nigger,” the attorney would later explain his position.

A few weeks after writing to Funk & Wagnall, Leon L. Bram, Vice President & Editorial Director, replied in a letter dated March 31, 1994, stating that the word would be deleted from all forthcoming printings. “Mr. Miller, your niece is fortunate in having an uncle as concerned and caring as you,” he wrote.

That year, Miller, who was also a professional solo R&B and gospel recording artist, made headlines not for his music, but for the fact that he had succeeded in getting rid of the infamous N-word slur from a major dictionary. His feat was reported in the May 1994 edition of Macon, GA.

The N-word to date is seen as the “filthiest” and “dirtiest” word in the English language. It can be traced back in history to slavery. “It’s really tied into the idea that African people aren’t really human beings,” Kehinde Andrews, professor of black studies at Birmingham City University, was quoted by the BBC in 2020.

“They were more like an animal than a human being, a beast of burden, could be bought and sold, could be thrown overboard ships and literally had no rights.

“So when the N-word is used that’s essentially what it’s used for.”

What has been widely interpreted as unfair election laws aimed at hurting the Black vote in the state of Georgia have now been promulgated despite the protestations of Democrats and election experts in and out of the Peach State.

On Thursday afternoon, Governor Brian Kemp signed the Election Integrity Act of 2021 after both houses of the state legislature, which Republicans control, voted in favor. The days leading up to the legislative decision saw a nationwide interest in what the bill proposed.

A few of the things the law seeks to do has left many concerned. For instance, the Act requires Georgians to get new ID requirements to request mail-in ballots. Formerly, Georgians only had to sign their names. Apart from that, Georgian legislators have now been given power to take control of election operations if any problems at all are reported during an electioneering process.

People waiting in line at at a polling center now will not receive food and drinks from any Samaritan since the practice is now illegal. The law will also allow only a short period of time for early voting.

When the new rules were being signed, State Rep. Park Cannon, a Black Democrat, went to the door of the room at the statehouse where Kemp and other legislators convened. After knocking on the door in continuous protest, Cannon was arrested, handcuffed, and removed from the premises.

She would later tweet: “I am not the first Georgian to be arrested for fighting voter suppression. I’d love to say I’m the last, but we know that isn’t true”.

The new laws have been read as a response to the devastating defeat suffered by Republicans in the 2020 election where for the first time in decades, the two United States senators from the state – Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Black social activist, and Jon Ossof, a Jewish investigative journalist – are Democrats.

President Joe Biden also became the first Democratic candidate for president to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992. The president also added his voice to the critics’ in calling out the new Georgia laws saying they amounted to “Jim Crow in the 21st Century” targeting Black people.

Georgian and College Football Hall of Famer Herschel Walker told a House Judiciary Committee meeting on Wednesday that Black Americans should not get reparations, citing moral and other reasons.

“We use black power to create white guilt. My approach is biblical: how can I ask my Heavenly Father to forgive me if I can’t forgive my brother?” asked the former NFL player who campaigned for former President Donald Trump last year.

“America is the greatest country in the world for me, a melting pot of a lot of great races, a lot of great minds that have come together with different ideas to make Americans the greatest country on Earth. Many have died trying to get into America. No one is dying trying to get out,” he said in the virtual hearing.

Walker joined the discussion in the session of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which debated H.R. 40, a piece of legislation that would establish a federal commission to look at the issue of reparations to Black Americans. The legislation was first introduced by the late Rep. John Conyers of Michigan in 1989 but it has never received a floor vote in the House.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas reintroduced it in January. Walker on Wednesday was joined by Hilary O. Shelton, head of the NAACP’s Washington, D.C., California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and others in discussing the bill, which has 162 co-sponsors. 58-year-old Walker, who played in the old USFL and NFL for over 15 years, asked during the hearing how Blackness would be measured if such a bill were passed.

“Reparations, where does the money come from? Does it come from all the other races except the black taxpayers? Who is black? What percentage of black must you be to receive reparations? Do you go to 23andMe or a DNA test to determine the percentage of blackness? Some American ancestors just came to this country 80 years ago, their ancestors wasn’t even here during slavery. Some black immigrants weren’t here during slavery, nor their ancestors. Some states didn’t even have slavery.”

The former Dallas Cowboys star said before the hearing, he asked his mom what he thought about reparations. “…Her words: I do not believe in reparations. Who is the money gonna go to? Has anyone thought about paying the families who lost someone in the Civil War, who fought for their freedom?”

“Reparation is only feeding you for a day. It is removing a sign ‘for whites only’ and replacing it with the sign ‘no education here,’” he said. The football star does not think White people should have to atone for slavery. “Who is the guilty party?” Walker, who is a 1982 Heisman Trophy winner asked. “Should we start at the beginning where African Americans sold your African American ancestors into slavery? And to a slave trader who eventually sold African American ancestors to slave owners?”

“I feel it continues to let us know we’re still African American, rather than just American. Reparation or atonement is outside the teaching of Jesus Christ.”

The issue of reparation for slavery has been raised by descendants of slaves in the Americas and the Caribbean for several years now. The belief that white Americans owe black Americans a moral debt for compensation for slavery, Jim Crow and long-standing racism has been ongoing since emancipation.

Critics of reparation say that it would be difficult to make fair calculations as to how much victims would take and in what form, considering the years involved. Those who have supported reparations say it is necessary to help redress the wrongs of slavery and racial discrimination. It would also help to resolve the continuing troubles of America’s black community. It is documented that “black Americans’ continuing poverty is a result of America deliberately frustrating the efforts of black Americans to accumulate and retain wealth until the 1980s.”

Nationwide polling shows, however, that compensation for those affected by slavery is an unpopular policy. In the journal Social Science Quarterly, a University of Connecticut researcher, Thomas Craemer estimated that it would cost between $5.9 trillion and $14.2 trillion to give historical reparations.

The journal, cited by Newsweek, said Craemer came up with those figures by tabulating how many hours all slaves worked in the United States from when the country was officially established in 1776 until 1865 when slavery was officially abolished. He subsequently multiplied the amount of time they worked by average wage prices at the time, and then a compounding interest rate of 3 percent per year to calculate the reparation figure.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Jackson Lee chastised Republican lawmakers for selecting two Black conservatives to speak against reparations.

“Like our last hearing, the minority has selected two African-American witnesses to speak against HR 40. That is their privilege. But we know that justice, facts and that life that was led and continues to be led by African Americans is on our side,” she said.

Three counties in Atlanta are going to have the first Black sheriffs in their respective history after the three men, who are all Democrats, were elected to fill the seats during Tuesday’s election.

Craig Owens, a police major, defeated long-time Cobb County Republican Sheriff Neil Warren whilst electorates in Gwinnett County chose Keybo Taylor over his opponent, Luis Solis. Reginald Scandrett also edged over Jack Redlinger in Henry County.

“It’s music to my ears,” Owens, who defeated his opponent by a margin of almost 35,000 votes (54.7% to 45.2%), told the news outlet after his victory. “I’ve been waiting for this for well over a year.”

“We have an opportunity to make history and that’s something we don’t take lightly,” he continued. “We’re gonna come in prepared being the professionals that we are and we’re gonna run this county like it should be. We’re going to treat everybody in this county with dignity and respect.”

Over in Gwinnett and Henry counties, Taylor and Scandrett also convincingly beat their opponents by 57% to 43%, and 60.3% to 39.7%.

“Yesterday, we finished the drill,” Taylor told his supporters on Wednesday, Gwinnett Daily Post reported. “You lifted your voices at the polls and stood in solidarity with an agenda that includes all of Gwinnett.”

The Cobb County Board of Elections will officially certify the election results on November 12. Their historic victories, according to Owens, go a long way to show how the metro Atlanta area is evolving when it comes to diversity.

“I think that will show a young black man, or a female, that they could also be the sheriff one day,” Owens told Channel 2 Action News.

Leading up to the election, Owens and Taylor promised sweeping reforms when given the mandate. In Cobb County, Owens’ predecessor, Warren, faced intense scrutiny over the conditions of the county jail following the deaths of several inmates during his incumbency in the last year.

“We’re gonna do things differently in Cobb. We’re gonna do things the right way,” Owens promised. “You can see how much Cobb has changed. And I think Cobb was due for a change.”

Owens’ and Taylor’s victories also mean they are most likely to scrap a federal partnership their respective counties have with the ICE following promises they made to cut ties with the agency during their campaigns. Known as 287(g), the program allows local deputies, who are trained and mandated by the ICE to act on their behalf, to identify, detain and deport undocumented immigrants in their custody, according to The Appeal. The immigrants usually end up in county jails for traffic and other non-violent offenses.

Locals, however, argue the program unfairly targets Latinos, Africans, Muslims and other immigrants and also scares people out of reporting crimes for fear of being deported. In Gwinnett County, for instance, the number of ICE detainees under the program shot up after Donald Trump assumed office.

“There’s all kinds of crimes being committed in these neighborhoods that are not being reported because people are afraid they’re going to be deported as well,” Taylor told The Appeal.

Owens also said the program “often turns into profiling, looking at Africans, Latinos, Muslims and other immigrants. It causes all types of problems, is expensive to maintain and I don’t see why the county should be involved in it.”

And though the ICE could retaliate with raids as they did in 2018 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, after a newly-elected Sheriff ended the program, Taylor, during a virtual debate with his opponent leading up to the election, said he would still take the high road.

“It’s almost like an ultimatum: either I cooperate with ICE or I’m going to be responsible for what they do in my neighborhoods. I take issue with them conducting raids simply because I refuse to participate in 287(g),” Owens said. “At the end of the day, I still won’t participate.”