Atlantic magazine blogger Ta-Nehisi Coates uses Troy Davis' case to highlight the importance of personal activism to fight against the death penality and to uphold the legacy of the civil rights movement.
Barring some miracle, it appears that the state will kill Troy Davis. My feelings on the death penalty are quite clear, and remain the same in this case also. You can get more on the legal questions behind denying Davis a retrial from Andrew Cohen.
But I thought it important to share another story that was brought to my attention which dove-tails with our conversation last week about personal activism, and the legacy of the Civil Rights movement.
I refer to the robbery and killing of James C. Anderson at the hands of racist thugs:
"Mr. Anderson, 48, died shortly after 5 a.m. on June 26. He had been leaving a motel, and had either lost his keys or locked them in his truck, the police said. Images from a security video show two carloads of teenagers driving into the parking lot. Some of them jumped out and approached Mr. Anderson, who was beaten and robbed. As Mr. Anderson staggered along a grassy strip at the edge of a parking lot, a teenager driving a Ford pickup truck backed up and then accelerated forward, running over and killing him, the investigators said."
Read Ta-Nehisi Coates' entire blog entry at the Atlantic.