RIP Willy Brown

Eighty eight years ago this week, a most heinous and unjustified execution took place in Omaha, Neb. It's victim a wrongfully accused man named Will Brown. Brown an African American, was wrongfully accused of raping a white woman, when it was later discovered the assailants were white men dressed in black face. The paper at the time the Omaha Bee was doing yellow journalism stories about crimes that blacks had committed. The woman who was allegedly raped fingered Brown as her rapist.

An outraged mob gathered at the courthouse in protest demanding that Brown be handed over to them. The guards in the jail refused and the mob set fire to the courthouse, stranding the jailed men on the roof. The mayor tried to quiet the people, but he was hanged, and later rescued. Brown was not so lucky, he was handed over to the crowd. The crowd hanged him from a light post before dragging his body behind a car to an intersection where they set fire to his corpse. A later investigation revealed that a crime boss in Omaha, had his flunkies dress in blackface make-up and perpetrate crimes to unsettle the citizens. The paper ate it up and the result was an innocent man was wrongly imprisoned, and was unmercifully tortured for a crime he never committed.

Me, being a resident of Omaha, recently discovered this dark chapter in my hometown's past. I was shocked and ashamed at the history of my hometown. It haunted me that people could be so cruel to one another, and even go so far as to ignore the facts of a case and instead of using correct judgment to set them free, using hateful judgment and blind racism to condemn them.

This week learn from the past and keep the truth in your writing. Use your best judgement, do not judge others lest ye be judge.