Apartheid. USA 1988

January 23, 1987:

One of the three white teenagers, Jon Lester (18), who attacked three black men in Howard Beach was convicted for manslaughter and assault to a maximum term in prison of 10 to 30 years. Justice Thomas A Demakos declared Lester had to serve a minimum of 10 years, ‘because of his callousness toward the life of another human being which must not go unpunished. What happened at Howard Beach - and make no mistake about it - it was a racial incident that triggered off this violence. What should be obvious to everyone here is that racism breeds hatred and hatred breeds racism and it is a vicious circle.’ Justice Demakos declared further, ‘What kind of individual do I have before me, who after witnessing a young black man get crushed by a car, continues his reckless conduct by savagely beating another black male with a bat? Jon Lester showed during the attack on the black men no remorse, no sense of guilt,

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no shame, no fear, therefore leniency was not in order.’^30. Forsyth County, 30 miles north of Atlanta, Georgia has a long history of racism and anti-black vigilante violence.

In 1912, after a young white woman was raped and murdered, a mob broke into a jail and killed a black suspect in the case. Two other blacks were hanged after a quick trial. In the weeks after the woman's death, white vigilantes drove all of the county's blacks out of the county, and no biack people have lived there ever since. Despite a fivefold or sixfold growth in population since 1960, the county retained its image as a bastion of racial violence.

Last week some 50 black demonstrators from Atlanta had gone to Forsyth County to honor the memory of the late Martin Luther King. They were confronted by several hundred whites who threw stones and bottles, hitting several marchers.^31.

30. The New York Times, from a report by Joseph P Fried

31. The New York Times, from a report by Dudley Clendinen