Race and Gender Justice in WV

March for Megan Williams Pictures - Part II

2008-03-17T23:00:00.002-04:00

March for Megan Williams Pictures - Part I

2008-03-17T22:52:00.001-04:00

Megan Williams - SURVIVING TORTURE: Appearance on The Montel Williams Show

2008-03-17T22:44:00.002-04:00

Megan's story recently made headlines after she was rescued by police after a week being held captive at the hands of six people who raped, tortured and humiliated her (Montelshow.com).

MEGAN WILLIAMS ON THE MONTEL WILLIAMS SHOW

2008-03-17T22:41:00.001-04:00

Talk show host, Montel Williams shares Megan Williams' story with his audience (ABC 8 - WCHS.com).

Jackson Lee wants Justice review of W.Va. torture case

2008-03-17T22:31:00.001-04:00

A Houston congresswoman has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to review the torture of a black woman by seven white people to determine whether federal hate crimes should be pursued (The Houston Chronicle.com).

Maximum Sentences In W. Va. Torture Case

2008-03-17T22:29:00.000-04:00

Two Defendants Receive 20+ Years For Vicious Trailer Assault On Black Woman (CBS News.com).

Houston congresswoman says W.Va. torture sentences too lenient

2008-03-17T22:25:00.002-04:00

A Houston congresswoman believes the sentences handed down for two defendants in the West Virginia torture of Megan Williams weren't harsh enough (ABC 7 - KVIA.COM)

2 in Logan torture case get maximum sentences

2008-03-17T22:21:00.001-04:00

Two defendants charged in connection with the torture of a black woman in Logan County last summer have received the maximum sentences possible (The Charleston Gazette).

March for Megan Williams Pictures - Part III

2008-03-17T22:13:00.002-04:00

The Noose: An American Nightmare

2007-10-31T11:33:00.000-04:00

The noose, a symbol of hatred from America's dark past, has resurfaced. Why is it back? CNN’s Kyra Phillips investigates the shocking history of the noose and its re-emergence across the United States. Watch Thursday, November 1, at 8 p.m. ET (CNN Special Investigation Unit).

Logan County, WV Torture Case - Are Hate Crime Laws Needed?

2007-10-25T23:58:00.000-04:00

The recent, brutal attacks on Megan Williams show that violence motivated by race and gender is a real threat, according to organizers of a forum on hate crimes at West Virginia University (Civil Rights - Public News Service).

Groups Support West Virginia Torture Victim (Megan Williams)

2007-10-19T09:36:00.000-04:00

Media coverage of the Coaliation to End Race and Gender Violence by the The Wilmington Journal, Part of the BlackPressUSA Network.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

2007-10-18T11:41:00.000-04:00

The West Virginia Deputy Attorney General, Paul R. Sheridan visited the Marilyn E. Lugar Courtroom at the WVU College of Law to speak during an event titled “Hate Crimes, Gender Violence and Community Responses: a Forum in Honor of Megan Williams.” The event was covered by The Daily Athenaeum at the West Virginia University.

Hate Crimes, Gender Violence, & Community Responses

2007-10-16T20:18:00.000-04:00

COALITION TO END RACE & GENDER VIOLENCE

Columbia hands over video for noose probe

2007-10-16T19:52:00.000-04:00

The graduate school where a noose was found on the door of a black professor agreed Thursday to turn over security videotape, but police were dismayed that they had to get a subpoena to acquire the evidence (October 11, 2007, MSNBC.com).

Lawmakers decry inaction over noose hangings, local prosecutor’s conduct

2007-10-16T19:38:00.000-04:00

Democratic lawmakers denounced federal authorities Tuesday for not intervening in the Jena Six case, citing racist noose-hanging incidents far beyond the small Louisiana town where a school attack garnered national attention (October 16, 2007, MSNBC.com).

Race & Diversity Related Links

2007-10-16T19:05:00.000-04:00

DiversityInc.com

DiversityInc is the leading publication on diversity and business. Founded in 1998 as a web-based publication, its monthly print magazine was launched in 2002.

How Race Is Lived in America

Two generations after the end of legal discrimination, race still ignites political debates — over Civil War flags, for example, or police profiling. But the wider public discussion of race relations seems muted by a full-employment economy and by a sense, particularly among many whites, that the time of large social remedies is past. Race relations are being defined less by political action than by daily experience, in schools, in sports arenas, in pop culture and at worship, and especially in the workplace. These encounters — race relations in the most literal, everyday sense — make up this series of reports, the outcome of a yearlong examination by a team of Times reporters.

The Big Picture

An interactive report on Civil Rights today.

Hate Crimes Bill

A detailed resource on a variety of hate crime legislation nationwide.

hate in the news

2007-10-04T13:16:00.000-04:00

A black high school student at a school for the deaf in Washington DC was held and marked with swastikas and "KKK" by 6 white students on Wednesday. http://kdka.com/topstories/topstories_story_277103940.html

Prof. Scully's Response on 9/12/07

2007-09-28T16:35:00.000-04:00

I was sitting in a coffee shop yesterday afternoon when I read a newspaper article about Maegan Williams, a 20 year old African American woman from Charleston WV. The story was buried on the third page of the West Virginia University student newspaper, the Daily Athenaeum. I was horrified to read how six white individuals ---a mother and son, a mother and daughter, and two other white males--- ranging in age from 49 to 24, kidnapped, raped, stabbed, and sexually abused Ms. Williams for over a week in Logan County, WV.

I later read other articles that provided more details about how Ms. Williams was forced to eat rat and dog feces, drink from a toilet, burned with boiling water, beaten, choked, called a nigger and told that all of this was happening because she was Black. My stomach turned, my head spun and heart hurt.

The emotional part of me thought “How could this have happened?” I was in total disbelief that human beings could treat another human being so badly.

The intellectual part of me, however, was not surprised at all. We live in the United States of America. This is a country that is deeply rooted in racism. According to the founding fathers of this nation, Black people were not really human. We were considered to be two-fifths property and only three-fifths human. We endured the horrible legacy of slavery, Black Codes, Jim Crow segregation, lynching, discrimination in employment, housing, education, banking and aggression against all remedies proposed to resolve racial disparities. Part of our history and culture includes serious violence against people of color committed by white citizens. A large of part of history and culture includes violence against women. So, intellectually, it was easy for me to understand how the nightmare in Logan County occurred.

This is not just a case about crazy demented socially isolated criminally inclined and violent individuals harming another human being. This case is also a product of ignoring racial hatred in America. You see, ever since we declared our selves to be living in the post-Civil Rights era, America has drifted in to a state of denial. We seem to believe that since there are civil rights statutes our racial problems are solved. Most of us no longer openly embrace white supremacist philosophy. Outright blatant racism is considered to be socially unacceptable. We condemn it. But so long as racism is not blatant, we ignore it. We tolerate racial jokes and embrace the concept of equal opportunity while fully ignoring racial disparities that persist in present day America. We try to pretend that everything is racially all right….. until something like the Logan County atrocity occurs.

And then, some of us, hopefully, will face reality…..a violent, cruel and shocking reality. The truth of the matter is that the six individuals who held Ms. Williams captive come from a culture filled with unfathomable violence and racial hatred; a culture that has too many examples of how to dehumanize people in general and black people and women in particular.

While I was thinking about all of this, I got on the internet and googled “Logan County”. The eleventh entry on my google search was a 55 page report written by the West Virginia Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights Commission in August 1995. It’s title was “Rising Racial Tensions in Logan County, West Virginia”. Among other things, the report stated “racial tension…in Logan County…has been allowed to escalate because there is a general tendency….to avoid problems involving racial differences until they reach crisis proportion.” This particular statement was made in regards to discrimination that was occurring in secondary schools.
But it seems appropriate to mention in this context here and now.

The way I see it, we all have a choice. Every one of us who picks up a newspaper and reads the story of the horror that Maegan Williams endured has a choice. We can read it, shake our heads, look down at our feet, perhaps say a prayer, and move on with our day OR we can read and respond. I am choosing the latter alternative.

I am haunted by this incident. And I know that there are many other citizens in the state of West Virginia and the country who are equally disturbed by this case. We need to act. We need to express our support for Maegan Williams and her family. We need to condemn the acts of the six individuals who perpetrated these crimes. We need to acknowledge the fact that racial slurs and racial comments were poured upon Ms. Williams’ already suffering mind and body. We need acknowledge that this type of harm causes psychological trauma for the victim, the perpetrators, and all of us who witness the event either through reading about it, listening to radio reports, or watching the news on television. We need to acknowledge that organized racial hatred groups exist all across America and because of this, what happened to Maegan Williams could have happened anywhere. Unfortunately, however, it happened in West Virginia. So we bear the burden of addressing it. I believe that the citizens of West Virginia should call on the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI to promptly investigate this racially motivated crime of torture and pursue it accordingly. We should also ask our Governor, and the Governor of every other state in the nation, to speak out against hate crime with an unwavering commitment to end tolerance of racial hatred.

West Virginia has often been the victim of bad publicity. Ask people what they know about West Virginia and they immediately think of poverty, ignorance, poor health, college students who drink too much and study too little, coal mining disasters, and now the racially and sexually charged nightmare that has invaded Maegan Williams’ life and ours.

West Virginia has an opportunity to speak out against racist violence to set an example for the rest of the nation. Our silence will do nothing but encourage more bad publicity….but our voices speaking passionately about violence against women and people of color could bring us one step closer to a society that is truly worthy of respect.

Judith A.M. Scully
Professor of Law
West Virginia College of Law

to be free from hate

2007-09-28T07:22:00.000-04:00

A group of students and professors at WVU College of Law bring you this website to promote race and gender justice in West Virginia and beyond.