Follow up letter to the Equal Justice Initiative about Dallas and Hatton W. Sumners

To be the background for this letter look at the blog postings with the  Hatton W. Sumners label.

I wrote them another letter which is as follows.

                                                                                    March 1, 2019

                                                                                    Edward H. Sebesta

                                                                                   

                                                                                    edwardsebesta@gmail.com

Jerome Gray

Chairman of the Board

Equal Justice Initiative

122 Commerce Street

Montgomery, Alabama 36104

Dear Mr. Gray:

I am again writing you to very be careful that you do not inadvertently collude with the City of Dallas in its ongoing incompetence in confronting its past.  Specifically, its failure to recognize Dallas’s special history regarding lynching and its possible use of a memorial element to obscure its historical past or obscure its incompetence in addressing the historical past.

As you know Hatton W. Sumners was a leading opponent of federal anti-lynching laws in the first half of the 20^th century. His opposition is one of the reasons a federal anti-lynching law wasn’t passed until 2018.  His speeches, one in 1922 and one in 1937, in opposition to federal anti-lynching legislation are vile. I am still transcribing them and will put them online at some point. I will announce them on my blog, https://dallaslandscape.blogspot.com/.

Yet Dallas honors Hatton W. Sumners. The Red Museum, in Dallas has a 4^th floor Hatton W. Sumners Court Room.  I have pictures in my blog posting https://dallaslandscape.blogspot.com/2019/03/hatton-w-sumners-court-room-at-red.html.   There is also the Hatton W. Sumners Foundation with their web page http://www.hattonsumners.org/index.htm. Even a cursory Google search will show that the most of the institutions of higher learning and others have involvements with the Hatton W. Sumners Foundation.

Every year many students are going to Hatton W. Sumners functions unaware.

This is aided by the historical institutions of the state of Texas. In the Texas State Historical Association entry for Hatton W. Sumners there is absolutely no mention of his role in blocking federal anti-lynching legislation. This is the link to their entry for him: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsu04.

The Hatton W. Sumners Court Room and the Hatton W. Sumners Foundation are just two items I have discovered so far on the Dallas built and very racialized landscape. I am still in progress and further discoveries might be made. You might have to consider that a sister memorial might be next to a Hatton W. Sumners item.

I think the City of Dallas very likely would use the Equal Justice Institute sister monuments as a façade to cover up its past and to construct a narrative how good Dallas is now in contrast to its past.

I hope the Equal Justice Institute doesn’t enable the City of Dallas in its failure to acknowledge its past.

                                                                                    Sincerely Yours,

                                                                                    Edward H. Sebesta

CC: Eva Ansley, Secretary/Treasurer; Ophelia Dahl; Scott Douglas, Executive Director; Dr. Paul Farmer; Dr. Randy Hertz; George Kendall; Dr. Martha Morgan; Byran Stevenson; Kim Taylor-Thompson; Kathy Vincent; and Carlos Williams, Executive Director

Informational Page on Hatton W. Sumners with text of both his speeches against federal anti-lynching legislations in 1922 and 1937.

HATTON W. SUMNER WEB PAGE WITH ALL THE INFORMATION.

We are starting a campaign against the honoring of a notorious Dallas racist, Hatton W. Sumner.

This page has the text of Sumners' 1922 and 1937 speech against federal anti-lynching legislation as well as some biographical and background information document.

Additionally there is a slide show of the Hatton W. Sumner Court Room.

http://templeofdemocracy.com/hatton-w-sumners.html

Use the labels to look at the earlier postings on Hatton W. Sumners.

Hatton W. Sumners Court room at the Red Museum, Dallas glorifies white supremacist.

I had an earlier posting about the Hatton W. Sumners Foundation and how Dallas has erased the fact that Hatton W. Sumners was a blistering racist and made him some type of hero.

This is the link to the earlier posting. The back story on how the Texas State Historical Association and the Hatton W. Sumners foundation have erased Sumners role in defeating federal anti-lynching legislation is stated there.

https://dallaslandscape.blogspot.com/2019/02/asking-texas-tribune-to-give-back.html

While I doing research I stumbled across the Hatton W. Sumner Court Room at the Red Museum in downtown Dallas.

The building is under rennovation.

The court room is on the 4th floor and I was told it was for marriage ceremonies by judges and for mock trials for students.

There is not explanation who Hatton W. Sumners was. The best I can tell it was designated the Hatton W. Sumners court room in 2005.

The Hatton W. Sumners Foundation was a donor to the Red Museum.

The Red Museum is the old county building.

This is the plaque at the entrance to the court room.

People are getting married in that court room and having the name of a rabid racist added to their life's story attached to their marriage and that the story of lynching in the 20th century is being attached to the story of their marriage.

Students are being given the idea that Hatton W. Sumners is some type of hero.

These are some pictures of the court room. It is very impressive showing that Hatton W. Sumners is being really honored by having the court room named after him.

From back of the court room. 

From the Front. 

What you don't see in these pictures is that the court room has two side rooms which are impressive also. In the front view photo the door to the left is the entry. In the view from the back the entry is on the right.

I am going to finish getting Hatton W. Sumners' speeches finished transcribed from the Congressional Record and I will do a blog posting on them and will also put a link to all the Hatton W. Sumners related postings in this blog.