Cheeseburger and Change of History.

 

The case citation 364 US 454 (1960) of the U.S. Supreme Court has become highly significant and historic as the decision in that case filed by a 21 year old negro law student of Howard University, Washington D.C. against the Commonwealth of Virginia has changed the course of history of racial segregation in the country.

The petitioner, belonged to Selma, Alabama State and planned to return home from Washington D.C. He bought a Trailways bus ticket from there to Montgomery, Alabama. He boarded a bus on a fateful day in Oct 1958 at 8 p.m. and the bus arrived at Richmond 'Trailways Bus Terminal', Virginia, about 10:40 p.m. As the bus driver announced a forty-minute stopover there, the Petitioner got off the bus and went into the bus terminal to get something to eat. In the station, he found a restaurant in which one part was used to serve white people and one to serve Negroes. Disregarding this division, the petitioner stepped into the ‘clinically clean’ white section (compared to the “very unsanitary” black section) and sat at table. On noticing this ‘trespass’ by a black, a waitress rushed to ask him to move over to the other section where there were 'facilities' to serve coloured people. The Petitioner firmly refused to move and told her that he was an interstate bus passenger. He ordered a cheeseburger and tea. The waitress immediately withdrew not to bring the ordered items but to bring the Assistant Manager there who 'instructed' the petitioner to 'leave the white portion of the restaurant and advised him that he could be served in the ‘coloured portion.' Upon the petitioner's stout refusal to leave, an officer was called and the petitioner was arrested. He was jailed, tried and convicted with a fine of ten dollars in the Police Justice's Court of Richmond on a charge that he 'Unlawfully did remain on the premises of the Bus Terminal Restaurant of Richmond, Inc. after having been forbidden to do so' by the Assistant Manager. The young student was not willing to take it meekly; instead he was determined to fight against the punishment and the (small) fine imposed on him. Thus unfurled a historic legal battle, in 1958, against racial segregation in U.S.A. Here is how, much later in 2018, the then petitioner briefly recalled the incident to the Associated Press (AP):“She (the waitress) left and came back with the manager. The manager poked his finger in my face and said ‘N—-r, move, 'and I knew that I would not move and I refused to, and that was the case.” The majority 7 judge (with 2 dissentions) Supreme Court decision in the case [citation 364 US 454 (1960)] categorically outlawed racial segregation on public transportation, bus stations and other facilities linked to interstate travel in the United States of America. Thurgood Marshall, who represented the young law student in the above cited Supreme Court case, later became the first Black U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Had the cheeseburger and tea ordered by the young student then been served in the Richmond bus-station restaurant, perhaps we wouldn’t have had the emergence of the life-time Civil rights champion, Bruce Boynton, who, at the beginning of this week, succumbed after a ‘tremendous life well lived’ to his long-drawn battle with cancer at the age of 83. On the day of his mortal end, he was to have been honored by a courthouse in his native Selma being renamed after him. Boynton was a final-year law student at Howard University at the time of his arrest in 1958 and after the controversy he wasn’t allowed to practice law in Alabama even though he had passed the bar in 1960. Therefore he had to relocate to Tennessee and practice there until the Alabama bar finally admitted him in 1966. On being licensed by Alabama Bar, he became the first and only black County attorney in Alabama. He spent his entire career as a civil rights attorney. His relentless crusade against racial discrimination right from his student days till his end and the ‘Freedom ride of 1960s that he inspired through his legal battle (Boynton v. Virginia) against the Richmond bus station happening will ever be cherished by everyone in the sphere of civil rights in U.S.A. and those involved with human rights all over the world.

After the historic verdict on December 5, 1960 in Boynton V Virginia 1960- the first time since 1946 that the court got divided (7-2) on a matter of racial segregation- several groups of black and even white students, called ‘Freedom Riders’, set out on buses to travel the South and test whether the ruling in the case was being sincerely followed. But to their dismay, the “Freedom Riders” were arrested or attacked in Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina, and a bus was burned. It was appreciable that the then-President John F. Kennedy quickly diffused fire by ordering stricter enforcement of federal anti-discrimination laws and the decision of the Supreme Court.

Bruce Boynton was born on June 19, 1937, in Selma, Alabama, to Amelia and S.W. Boynton. His parents were also prominent members of the civil rights movement and have greatly contributed to the freedoms that many Blacks have today. From his very young age, apart from being intelligent, Boynton was a gentleman always displaying exemplary courage and honesty to speak his mind. Through his legal work, till his end, he was always helpful to people that others refused to help. He served as Alabama’s first Black special prosecutor and boldly prosecuted the Mayor of Beatrice, Alabama for attacking a BIack man.  While practicing in Selma, Boynton was beaten by Wilcox county sheriff and his Chief Deputy. Afterward, he had to have body guards comprising volunteers. Bruce Boynton’s life is a great lesson to every one about how one can make a difference. About the Richmond happening and Boynton’s actions it is often remarked as: “All he wanted was a cheeseburger, and he changed the course of history.”

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[The text of the judgment of Boynton V Commonwealth of Virginia can be accessed at: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/364/454#]

 

 Punishment of death

Recently embarked on a brief study on death penalty (as part of periodic self- renewal of knowledge sources). Interesting finds are there for any who surfs the abundant variety of references and internet sources.

In ancient Tamil society, 'death punishment' seems rare. There are references to one Chieftain Nannan  ( Natrinai  292, Kurunthogai 73) who inflicted death punishment on a girl who ate a mango of the royal garden that came floating in a river. In Silappathikaram, the Pandiya King awards death punishment, without any enquiry, on Kovalan on the suspision of theft of the anklet of his wife, the queen. 

But in many societies, death penalty has been in vogue from very early times of recorded history. To mention a few,

i)        The Roman law of the Twelve Tables (5^th Century B.C) contains reference to death penalty. Death sentences were carried out by brutal  means such as ‘beheading, boiling in oil, burying alive, burning, crucifixion, disembowelment, drowning, flaying alive, hanging, impalement, stoning, strangling, being thrown to wild animals, and quartering (being torn apart)’.

ii)   The Draco’s Law Code of Athens, (7^th century B.C.) called ‘draconian law’ has made death penalty as the lone punishment for all crimes (hence the use of the term "draconian" to describe particularly harsh penalties). The myth about Draco’s code is that Code was written not in ink but in blood instead.

iii)     The Hittite Code (14^th Century B.C) incorporates death penalty also but only marginally. The most serious offenses typically were punished through enslavement. Crimes of a sexual nature often were punishable by death.

iv)         The Code of Babylonian King Hammurabi (18^th Century B.C) (Full code available at: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp) engraved on stone tablets for all the public to see has, among its 282 rules/codes, prescribed the death penalty for over 20 different offenses.

Perhaps like the Codes of Manu, Hammurabi code provides a peculiar, unequal kind of law based on social status. The code has rules separately for slaves, freed men, and the freeborn people of the city-state of Babylon.

This code has prescribed severe punishments for many of the offences now more lightly dealt with in most countries (E.g.: death by execution for theft, perjury, and such other crimes). The Code has the famous prescription that "If a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye."

A look at some of the crimes bringing liability for the death sentence under the Hammurabi Code offers interesting insights into the system of prevalent law then in Babylon.

In our days of carefree thefts of temple statutes, jewels and properties; construction of substandard public and private buildings by money-thirsty contractors; public indulging in baseless levelling of serious accusations against others; increasing illicit and incest affairs in the society, we have to see how the very harsh Hammurabi Code, has tried to address these social evils.

Death for theft

·       If someone stole anything from the temple or the court, he would be put to death.  

·    The buyer of the sold good or receiver of the stolen item from the thief that person would also be put to death. Escape from death was possible if he could prove that he had no knowledge of the item having been stolen.

·       If a man bought an item from a slave or the son of another man, the purchaser would be considered a thief and could be put to death.

·        If a person’s home was burning and someone went into his house to help put the fire out and if that person was caught stealing from that home, the ‘thief’ would be put to death by fire.

Meddling with Slaves

·        Meddling with another person’s slave could get a person killed.

·        Taking another person’s slave outside the city gates would attract a death sentence.

·        Hiding runaway slaves would also incur a death sentence.

Robbery

·        Any form of robbery was punishable by death.

·       If someone were to break into a home to steal and he was caught, the thief would be taken back to that home, killed there, and buried.

Conspirators

·        Any tavern keeper who allowed conspirators in the tavern, and if those conspirators were not caught, the tavern keeper would face the death penalty.

Adultery & Sexual offences

·        Adultery was a serious crime in ancient Babylon. If a wife and some other man were caught in the act of having an affair, both the wife and paramour could be tied up and thrown into the river. (The husband, if he desired, could pardon his wife and save her from drowning.)

·        If a man forced himself on another man’s wife and he is caught in the act, the man would be put to death. (Luckily, the wife would be held blameless in the situation.)

·        If a wife of a man and the husband of another woman were having an affair and plotted to murder their spouses, both the widows would face impalement.

·        If any father has intimate moments with the wives of their sons and if the son’s father was caught red-handed, the father would be bound and cast into the river.

·   If a son indulges in incest (with his own mother), both he and his mother would be burned to death.

Assault

·    If a pregnant woman was hit and the hit woman was a freeborn woman and if she lost her child due to the injury, the man had to pay a fine. If the woman died as a result of the assault, then besides him, his daughter would also be put to death.

House builder

·    If a house builder did not build a home properly, and if the house collapsed killing the owner, the house builder would be put to death.

·      If the house collapsed and the owner’s son was killed, then the son of the house builder would be put to death.

 

Certainly, the Hammurabi Code is ‘barbaric in nature’ than being legal to our senses. But there is justification to give necessary allowance to the relevant time period, level of civilization and the nature of the society in question.

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A gruesome glimpse of the past.

In these days of practices of and raised voices for human rights, the following information about Sir Walter Raleigh presents a glimpse of the gruesome days of the past.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1554- 1618)

The much used phrase” many- sided personality” would certainly suit most the one- an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer- Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618)

Raleigh was educated at the Oriel College, Oxford (1572) and at the Middle Temple law college (1575). His outspoken criticism of the English policy implemented in Ireland and also his help to put down a rebellion in Ireland brought him to the attention of Queen Elizabeth. By 1582, he had become the crown’s favorites, rose to occupy many positions, became a M.P. and was made a Governor of Jersey. Raleigh was also made captain of the queen’s guard.

That Sir Walter Raleigh, was a writer, poet, and adventurer is known to many. But, it may not be known to many that he was one of the earliest victims of the successive injustices of the crowns.

It was Queen Elizabeth I who knighted Walter Raleigh in 1585 and the same Queen put him in prison, seven years later, for not informing his marriage to her. Raleigh married one Elizabeth Throckmorton – one of the ladies -in waiting to the queen - and kept this as a secret from the jealous queen for some time. In 1592, the birth of a son betrayed him, and for this ‘heinous crime’ he and his wife were both imprisoned in the Tower of London. Somehow, he was released after some time.

After Queen Elizabeth I’s death, her successor James I (reigned 1603–25), a peace-loving monarch, wanted to have absolutely nothing to do with Raleigh. James I desired to achieve peaceful relations with other countries. Raleigh’s aggressive policies toward Spain was not to the liking of the peace lover King James I. Raleigh’s enemies too worked to bring about his ruin. In 1603, Raleigh and others were accused of plotting to dethrone the king. Raleigh was convicted on the written evidence of Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham. As a last minute reprieve to Raleigh, the death sentence was ultimately reduced to a lifetime of imprisonment in the Tower of London. After twelve years, though Raleigh was released, he was not pardoned.

After release in 1616, Raleigh was sent out on a mission that he had already been on—and failed at. That was, finding the elusive city of El Dorado. Raleigh and his crew didn’t find the mythical city, but what they did find on the way home was the Spanish. Raleigh getting into a fight with the Spanish went directly against the king’s wishes and orders, and it was considered an act of treason for which Raleigh got his second notice of execution. King James invoked the suspended sentence (of 1603) and Raleigh was finally executed in October 1618.

The execution was gruesome. It has been recorded that it took the executioner two blows to remove Raleigh’s head. The detached head was displayed to the crowd that had assembled for the event. Later, it was placed in a red bag, covered with velvet and presented to his wife. The rest of Raleigh’s body was immediately buried in St. Margaret’s Church in Westminster. He was laid to rest in a place of honour in spite of the accusations of treason that eventually led to his death sentence. For reasons that remain unclear, he was buried in an unmarked grave.

Lady Raleigh (Elizabeth Throckmorton, former lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth), truly loved her doomed husband. She did not remarry and kept her embalmed husband’s head with her until the day she died after 29 years of the execution. According to some stories, she kept the head in a glass case in her home, and curiosity seekers and family friends would travel miles to visit and pay their respects to the head. After her passing away, the head of Raleigh passed on to their son, Carew. He also continued the tradition of keeping the embalmed head, and when he passed away, the head was also buried with him in Surrey.

Though executed for treason, the popular feeling had remained on Raleigh’s side ever since 1603. After his execution, his occasional writings were collected and published. Some 560 lines of verse hand written by him is preserved to date. His best-known prose works in addition to The Discoverie of Guiana are A Report of the Truth of the Fight About the Iles of Açores This Last Sommer (1591; generally known as The Last Fight of the Revenge) and The History of the World (1614).

In the light of the unbelievable happenings, there is room to present Raleigh either as a hero or as a ‘traitor’. 

His original death sentence was especially gruesome: "... [you are] to be hanged and cut down alive, and your body shall be opened, your heart and bowels plucked out, and your privy members cut off, and thrown into the fire before your eyes; then your head to be stricken off from your body, and your body shall be divided into four quarters, to be disposed of at the king's pleasure." 

Imagine the road travelled to achieve human rights for all.

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