#northern racism

[ausetkmt]

Violent secret society plagued 1930s Detroit

Eighty years ago this spring, the murder of Detroiter Charley Poole led to the exposure of the Black Legion, a Klan-like organization that flourished in southeast Michigan. The revelation that tens of thousands of men, including police and elected officials, belonged to a violent, hooded secret society spawned hysteria, demands for a federal investigation and, too, a Humphrey Bogart movie.

Legion members were prosecuted for two murders, but they were responsible for dozens more, as well as beatings, bombings and dire plots.

The legion’s reign of terror rates as one of Detroit’s darkest moments but it coincided with one of its most glorious. Between autumn 1935 and spring 1936, the Tigers, Lions and Red Wings all won championships as undefeated boxer Joe Louis became a national figure.

Author Tom Stanton, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Detroit Mercy, delves into the legion’s activities in his new book, “Terror in the City of Champions.” This adapted excerpt details the 1936 Poole killing.

Dayton Dean, a pipe wrapper for the Detroit lighting commission, went to Eppinger Sporting Goods in Cadillac Square on Monday, May 11, 1936, to take target practice in the fourth floor range.

The next evening, Dean went to a gathering at Findlater Temple, a two-story structure with 20-foot columns at Waterman and West Lafayette. Nearby was an industrial area that included factories for American Brass and Fisher Fleetwood.

A “White Russian,” Victor Nicholas Schultz, lectured the crowd of nearly 50 legionnaires, decrying the communists who he said had destroyed his native land. He warned the same thing could happen in America. When Schultz finished, Col. Harvey Davis, leader of a legion regiment, took center stage.

There was another serious issue to be tackled, Col. Davis said. A Catholic man, Charley Poole, had beaten and kicked his expectant Baptist wife, Rebecca, so badly that she was in Herman Kiefer Hospital at the very moment, and her baby wouldn’t be born alive, he said.

There was one major problem with the story. It was untrue. Poole had not hit his wife. There had been no beating. Rebecca was in the hospital because she had delivered a second daughter.

Legionnaire Lowell Rushing had helped spread the false story. He disliked Charley Poole for having married Rebecca 18 months earlier. Rushing had grown up with Rebecca back in Danville, Tennessee. Some years back, Rebecca had spent a summer in the home of her sister, who was married to Rushing’s brother. Lowell had spent that same summer under the same roof and become smitten with pretty, 90-pound Rebecca and her high-pitched, childlike voice.

The rumor of the beating became embellished, and grew into the large tale that Col. Harvey Davis spread at the May 12 meeting, inflaming the men with colorful details and working them into a fervor. What should be done? he asked.

Poole had been mostly unemployed since losing his job around Christmas and was working two days a week with the WPA. Over the years, he had been a mechanic, a chef and a shipman on the Great Lakes, but money always seemed tight. The landlord was allowing him to stay temporarily with the understanding that he would pay him back once he found a job.

Poole was a talented athlete. Col. Davis told him he could get him a position that would include playing for the Timken Axle baseball team. He said he would send someone by later to take him to a team meeting to be measured for a uniform. It was not uncommon for some workers to be hired based on their ability to contribute in the competitive industrial sports leagues. Poole was a catcher, like the Tigers’ Mickey Cochrane.

That night, the livid crowd inside Findlater Temple called for justice. They demanded a beating, a lynching or a one-way ride for Charley Poole. Davis had already procured his gunmen, Ervin Lee and Dayton Dean. Others volunteered. Until then, some had done little with the Black Legion.

Twenty-two-year-old Urban Lipps had come to Michigan from Mississippi a year earlier. Feeling lonesome, he had accepted an invitation to a party, hoping to meet friends and build a social life outside his job at Hudson Motor Company. Instead, he was inducted into the legion. Thousands of men were tricked into joining. The ritual, conducted in the dark by robed men with guns, petrified Lipps. The only former members were dead members, he was told.

“A fellow hardly knows how he gets into these things,” he would say.

Poole must have thought his life was finally taking a turn for the better with the possibility of a decent job and a spot on a factory team. He may have wondered, though, if he had heard Col. Harvey Davis correctly, for Poole and two pals went to three beer gardens that evening looking for his baseball ride. They started out at Hayes Chop House around the corner from his flat. They walked next to the Blue Ribbon Café, a mile up Fort, and then proceeded to Joe’s Pavilion, a dancing spot across from Ternstedt Manufacturing.

At each place, Poole let the bartender know where he could be found if someone came looking. He wasn’t taking chances with his wardrobe, either. He looked smart, dressed in a second-hand, dark-brown suit, red tie, stylish pin-striped red-and-purple shirt, gray socks and black Oxfords. He was sitting in Joe’s Pavilion when blonde-haired Urban Lipps walked up to the table.

“Are you going to the baseball party?” Lipps asked.

“Sure,” Poole said.

The proposition sounded so good that all three men wanted to go. But there was room for only Charley Poole. They left the bar, and Lipps led Poole to a car. Poole slid into the backseat beside Dayton Dean. The nighttime caravan of four cars headed out of Detroit along Fort Street.

Poole was excited about the baseball meeting. Dean and Lipps kept up the charade by talking about the Tigers. Ever since the October World Series, baseball had been a topic of choice around town. Earlier in the day, the Tigers had shut out Boston. It was their second straight win.

Two cars made it over the Rouge River before the drawbridge lifted. The others waited for a ship to pass. The industrial skyline at nighttime was eerie, ominous and menacing. Floodlights — white, red, amber — dotted land and sky, spreading orbs over looming cranes and smokestacks and throwing shadows across hard, hostile structures. Flames flared from narrow pipes, and massive, forbidding buildings stood silhouetted against the sky. Ghostly clouds of illuminated smoke hovered around them.

Charley Poole noticed the moon. It shone large, a scuffed cue ball against a blue-felt sky. Poole commented to Dayton Dean about it as they drove. They were heading to Dearborn, holding close to the Rouge River where possible. Poole talked about his wife and two young daughters. Dean began feeling there was “something fishy” about Col. Harvey Davis’ tale of the beating. But he had his orders, and he knew he could be killed for disobeying them.

It was a long ride before they stopped along Gulley Road. A golf course lay 300 yards away. Lipps and Poole stayed in the car near a one-lane bridge. Dean and Ervin Lee got out to confer with Col. Davis and the other men. A bottle of liquor passed between them. Lee went back to the car and offered Lipps and Poole a drink. Poole declined.

He had begun to doubt the baseball meeting.

“What is this going to be, a party out under the stars?” Poole asked.

Lee laughed and said yes.

Col. Davis directed Dean to get Poole. Dean pulled out his .38 and .45. Poole didn’t fight as Dean ushered him to a spot near a ditch. He stood six feet from him. Lee was to Dean’s left. Col. Davis stayed behind both of them, armed with a revolver.

Poole asked why they had pulled guns. He said he hadn’t done anything.

“You’re a dirty liar,” replied Col. Davis. “You know what you’ve done and what you have been brought out here for. You know you beat up your wife — ”

“Boys, there must be some mistake,” he said. “I never — ”

Col. Davis swore at him. “You’ll never live to do it again,” he said.

Dean looked around. There wasn’t much light, and he couldn’t see Poole’s face. In the brief, quiet pause, Dean figured it was time to act. He fired at Poole. So did Lee, but off to the side. Dean shot eight times from the hip, unloading with both hands. Poole collapsed into the ditch. He had been struck six times. They waited to make certain he was dead. The pop of the gun awoke farmer Fred Shettleman, who figured it must be a backfiring car. He fell back asleep.

Col. Davis scolded Dean for shooting too early; he had wanted to lecture Poole some more. Col. Davis told the men to keep their mouths shut about the killing. They drove back to Fort Street. A few of them went to a German inn, where they sat amid cigar and cigarette smoke in the tawny light of a half-curtained barroom and chatted over beers.

Col. Davis walked home. The fresh air might clear his mind.

Adapted from “Terror in the City of Champions” by Tom Stanton. Copyright ©2016 by Tom Stanton. Reprinted by permission of Lyons Press.

Poole slaying helped expose Black Legion

[drmonkeysetroscans]

My hometown.

[alwaysbewoke]

A federal judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit by Elon Musk’s X that had targeted a watchdog group for its critical reports about hate speech on the social media platform. In a blistering 52-page order, the judge blasted X’s case as plainly punitive rather than about protecting the platform’s security and legal rights. “Sometimes it is unclear what is driving a litigation,” wrote District Judge Charles Breyer, of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, in the order’s opening lines. “Other times, a complaint is so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose.” “This case represents the latter circumstance,” Breyer continued. “This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech.” X’s lawsuit had accused the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) of violating the company’s terms of service when it studied, and then wrote about, hate speech on the platform following Musk’s takeover of Twitter in October 2022. X has blamed CCDH’s reports, which showcase the prevalence of hate speech on the platform, for amplifying brand safety concerns and driving advertisers away from the site. In the suit, X claimed that it had suffered tens of millions of dollars in damages from CCDH’s publications. CCDH is an international non-profit with offices in the UK and US. Because of its potential to destroy the watchdog group, the case has been widely viewed as a bellwether for research and accountability on X as Musk has welcomed back prominent white supremacists and others to the platform who had previously been suspended when the platform was still a publicly-traded company called Twitter.

[deesi-academia]

what did the basic ass privileged whites do to deserve this wonderful spectacle

[venusintheblindspots-blog]

Me waking up to a bunch of comments on my post about Rhaenyra and Nettles proving my point that society will literally coddle a white woman when she’s being racist and give her a thousand excuses they give nobody else.

But anyways @bohemian-nights summarized all I had to say:

That’s all that really needs to be said.

[johnschneiderblog]

Red-letter hate

You have to admit it - this billboard, blighting a highway in northern Michigan, has it all: racism, misogyny and a feeble attempt to disguise plain old hate as religion. In big, red letters, yet.

But I will admit that the owner was quick to adapt to changing circumstances ...

Proverbs 6:16-19: "There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community."

Hmm ... that sounds like somebody we know, alright, but not Joe.

[pupuseriazag]

Making my own region for a dnd out of spite for lack of mesoamerican (in the case of this region, Nahua) cultures and cities as well as also inserting the names of cities from my country because of their meanings (like for example Nahuizalco means "Four places of obsidian" god thats so cool)

[irithnova]

I wish I wasn't shown this because it's even more fucking annoying than her first response

Meeru is absolutely backtracking and no I don't believe she's trying to be self critical for a second.

I quite literally explained to Meeru in my first response to her that Panda's behaviour is genuinely abusive and dangerous (for example, causing someone to relapse in their eating disorder). I even provided Meeru with a WHOLE LIST of the things Panda did which includes blatant racism, suicide baiting, victim blaming, and inappropriate behavior infront of and towards minors.

I then went on a provided Meeru with FOUR screenshots of Panda's behavior, one of the screenshots showing her saying that she wants Manchurians to be genocided. I then pointed out that Meeru's interest in Siberians and Northern Asians is purely orientalist because she has built her blog off of the back of Northern Asian and Siberian cultures, but when being told that her friend Panda is racist against Northern Asians and was even provided a screenshot as evidence for this, she STILL went on to call it "boring cancel culture".

In the first response I also said how MULTIPLE people tried to talk to Panda privately, and she did not listen. Her behaviour is not only dangerous but we have found out that Panda has been trying to control the narrative about what happened to people throughout the fandom and telling them absolute lies about what happened, concealing the extent of her abuse and bad behaviour and outright orchestrating a hate campaign against @/miyuecakes by not only spreading lies about her with 0 evidence throughout the fandom, but by sending her posse to harass her on tumblr.

How did Meeru respond upon being given a list of the things Panda did with four screenshots of ACTUAL evidence?

"Don't blame me for not reading all 80 pages!"

"My family is struggling!"

"I care about Siberians!"

"Why did this come out around Christmas!"

She's now backtracking saying that I can't blame her for not reading all 80 pages when

1) No one fucking forced her to release that post before reading the whole document and it's quite stupid of her to release that post despite apparently not reading it

2) Even if she didn't read the whole document? I provided her with screenshots of Panda's behavior and a list of the things she's done to hurt people.

Despite this, Meeru STILL called it purely cancel culture and dismissed the evidence I gave her!

Stop backtracking!

This post is backtracking central. Oh. So NOW you agree that Panda's behavior was harmful even though I literally told you what she did and gave you evidence in my response to you?

"Why are things being handled in public" bestie I don't think I need to keep explaining to you that multiple people have tried to talk to Panda about her dangerous behavior privately but she didn't listen. She shows 0 desire to change and IMMEDIATELY went to make other friends to lie to about the whole ordeal after she left. This post is a WARNING to people to avoid her.

When I said you were orientalist , I said it was because you were given literal evidence of Panda being racist to Northern Asians , yet you decided to carry on with the narrative that this is cancel culture and that we're overreacting. I didn't say jackshit about Putin girly. If you treat racism against Northern Asians like it's just a newspaper article for you to reblog rather than an actual material reality, and dismiss racism against a Northern Asian just because your friend did it, your so called interest in their cultures means nothing!

Meeru is now blaming ME for why she couldn't read the whole document because she was too busy "defending herself" against my "insults"😂 You lie almost as often Panda does. Again, no one forced you to post that post before finishing the whole document! Don't speak on shit you don't know about !

I have the right to insult someone who stands by an abuser and shits on the victims for speaking out! Thanks !

[kuramirocket]

Important, but also the racism came out here in this reply I got:

Like wtf is this person's problem. Can't even see indigenous people take pride in their roots without being racist, smh. Really be here using the derogatory and racist "indio," huh. Just proves the point in the TikTok. And the worst part is they are part of different minority groups and decide to act like a clown:

Proud indigenous Zapotec forever 🇲🇽

Fck racists and racism.

[chemicalarospec]

.

[discountdyke]

ppl are so insane about the south like i know nc is not the deep south but seriously there are places where homophobia is really bad and places where its not. there are places where racism is really bad and places where it is less bad. the unwillingness to believe that racism and homo/transphobia etc dont exist in the north is just ridiculous. where are you people fucking coming from????

[ausetkmt]

Detroit is ringed by sundown towns

[nando161mando]

WEST COAST PRISON PHONE ZAP📞⚡️

Black prisoners at CMF Vacaville, a prison in Northern CA, continue to be subjected to antiBlack harassment by guards during the weekend visiting hours. Today abolitionists in the Bay & comrades elsewhere began a zap. Join us, attack back 💥

[elfgarlic]

radical vegans stop being racist for five minutes challenge

[bisexualseraphim]

Mfw older white people are complaining about how “the way young people talk these days is ridiculous” and I take a look and the speech they’re referring to is just AAVE or queer slang

[infinitystation]

YEAH FROM ONE RED STATE GAY TO ANOTHER. THIS SHIT ANNOYS ME SO BAD. even though ive lived in the south pretty much my whole life, my extended family all lives up north, so we go there sometimes. i have never fucking seen such bullshit as when liberals say "the south is bigoted the north is safe!!!". ever been to new hampshire? everywhere i went i was the only damn brown person in the room. but higher white population aside, the north is just as bigoted as the damn south, and the only difference is that southerners are LOUD about it. down here if someone's a trumpie, you know immediately. up there though? you have no idea til youre at their table and they ask you about your thoughts on the latest left vs right debate.

its also just ironic all of it. the north is full of cities with gays living in their apartments with gay roomates and whatnot, having the money to live in a welcome area grabbin starbucks every day, but theyre so blind about the black and hispanic people segregated to the corners of their happy leftist city... the disregard for poc is insane. especially when they say us being a red state is our fault, like brown people's voting rights aren't limited by the whites in power. something to think about...

sorry for this rant i have such strong feelings about this. im sick of being told to "just leave" or worse, being blamed for and grouped with the trumpies

ppl love to point to the south and say "look at the worst of them" and assume the entire place is like that and everyone agrees with all the hate crimes going on, but when you try to talk about anything like violent racism in cities suddenly it's "an institutional problem" and has nothing to do with cultural attitudes...