Black Americans have been on edge all year thanks to the senseless and seemingly endless occurrences of police brutality against Black people that have left many of us dead with no justice in sight. And that horrifying trend continued this past week as two unarmed Black men, Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott, were both unjustifiably shot to death by police officers while driving while Black. With so much turmoil in the Black community surrounding these killings, Oprah Winfrey recently shared her thoughts on the matter and equated them to modern day lynchings.
In a new interview, Winfrey spoke about her recent trip to the new National Museum of African American History and Culture and she explained how the section of the museum devoted to Emmett Till, who was lynched in 1955 after allegedly whistling at a white woman, was the most impactful part of the trip to her.
“They have Emmitt Till’s casket when his body was exhumed and they were actually trying to make sure that it was Emmitt Till so his original casket in is there. When you look at the story of Emmitt Till and how that motivated a whole nation to take action and when you think about what’s happening in our country today with Black men, unarmed, being shot it’s like a new Emmitt Till every week,” Winfrey said.
Winfrey continued her comparison of Till’s horrific murder to the killings of today’s Black men.
“When that happened, it was like the country had never seen anything like that demonstrated and now you see it so…,” Winfrey added.
Winfrey then shared that the museum has a powerful tribute to the Black people who have lost their lives to racism and brutality.
“Another thing that was so moving and that could make me cry was that they have a wall of all the men and women who were lynched. There’s a lynching wall with all the names of the people. For me, those were the two most moving things,” Winfrey said.
We’re definitely interested in seeing what other powerful pieces this museum has to offer. Winfrey hit the nail on the head by calling these killings modern day lynchings and it’s heartbreaking that America has not changed in the decades since Till’s violent murder.
What do you think of Winfrey’s words? Let us know in the comments.
