A MAN WAS LYNCHED BY POLICE YESTERDAY
In form and typography, Dread Scott’s banner closely resembles the one periodically displayed outside of the offices of the NAACP in New York in the 1920s and 30s immediately following a lynching—part of the organization’s ongoing anti-lynching campaign. Scott made a new version of the banner, adding “BY POLICE”, in 2015 in response to the killing of Walter Scott in South Carolina. Scott’s banner is both a vivid statement to the reader and evidence of the terrible continuity of racism, comparing the recent violence against Black people by Police to the lynch mobs of less than 100 years ago. The banner will be displayed on North Avenue in central Baltimore, a city that is host to the headquarters of the NAACP. North Avenue was a site of protest in response to the death of Freddie Gray in 2015. “There is a national epidemic of police killing people. They kill about 1100 people a year. They get caught on video choking people to death, shooting them in the back, shooting them while lying handcuffed, breaking their necks and cops are never held responsible for their crimes. The police murdered Freddie Gray and the people responded with tremendous heart and courage to that killing. I’m honored that A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday will fly in Baltimore as part of our ongoing collective fight for justice.” —Dread Scott