Dear Editor:

I am a mother, I understand. I understand the turmoil raging on the inside of every African-American screaming, “No More!” No dragging deaths of our people. No more shooting death of our people. No morebeating deaths of our people. I am a mother, I understand!

In 1998 James Byrd of Texas accepted a ride from three white who instead chained his ankles and dragged him from the truck, which killed him brutally. Brewer and King received the death penalty, while Berry was sentenced to life in prison. Berry, who was driving, knew Byrd from around town. I am a mother, I understand.

Brandon McClelland was dragged to death. Two white men were accused of killing the black man in the death in Texas in 2008. But they were dismissed on the grounds of lack of eyewitnesses and physical evidence. Yet there were speculations that one of the murderers was possibly a in a white supremacist group. McCelland socialized with his killers on the eve of his death just like Anthony Hill. I am a mother, I understand.

June 2, in Newberry, Hill was killed by Gregory Collins after being shot and then dragged almost 11 miles. See I am a mother, I understand the need for swift justice, a need for closure, a need for such evil to be called a hate crime. “Racism is so universal in this country, so widespread and deep-seated, that it is invisible because it is so normal,” says Shirley Chisholm.

“I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired,” to quote Fannie Lou Hamer. I am sick of reading of the murder of a person due to the color of their skin or sexual orientation.

I say if we the people black and white want justice we must demand justice from our law maker by writing letters to our President, Department of Justice, Congressmen, South Carolina Governor and the press expressing our outrage of a system which claim The 14 Amendment's Equal Protection Clause requires states to provide equal protection under the law to all people within their jurisdictions. Who was it that said there is power in the pin? I am a mother, I understand.

Sincerely,

Tammie Denise Bates

Newberry