There is a new museum opening in Birmingham Alabama. It’s not pretty, and it is not a celebration of America’s accomplishments. It is dedicated to the thousands of black Americans who were lynched after the Civil War in the South and other states which supported slavery.

Hung from tablets attached to the ceiling are names etched in stone of more than 4,000 men, women, and children. The men and women who created the museum claim that the numbers are actually far larger than those recorded at the site.

Not only were these black Americans hung, they were often shot and tortured before they died as white men, women, and children dressed in their ‘going to church clothes’ celebrated their demise. These tortured souls were frequently soaked in oil and then dropped from their suspended positions into bonfires and burned to death.

There are records of crowds as large as 15,000 celebrating as their victims were tortured and executed for a variety of ‘made-up’ crimes.

Donald Trump has revealed that his slogan of ‘make America great again’ is an effort to return our nation to this part of our dark past. His largest number of supporters come from states which fought against the Union in the Civil War; their primary purpose was to maintain their right to own slaves.

I will ask a simple question; what do you believe the name ‘America’ should represent? Do you want your nation to continue moving backwards with the Trump agenda and the support of a hypocritical Republican Party, or do you want to move forward and protect the rights of all Americans, regardless of race, religion, color of their skin, sex, or sexual orientation? If you believe that the latter best represents your hope for the United States of America, you are a patriot; if not, you are a Trump supporter.

You have a weapon, and if you use it on November 6, 2018, we can win this war.

Op-ed by James Turnage

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