The Toxic, Hidden History of a Black Man Castrated in a Small Texas Town
Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2020 12:27 pm
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4agn ... xas-racism
While there arent comprehensive statistics for the number of black men castrated by white mobs, experts say that white mens fear of black male sexuality lead to a constant threat of violence, including castration, from the time of slavery to the mid-twentieth century.
But this woman pleaded with McNeeley to give her a ride.
Her begging was so touching and she was so convincing that I suppose I became weak and let her ride, McNeeley said in the 1941 newspaper account.
Shortly after allowing the woman to ride with him, a tire on McNeeleys car flew off. He swerved into a ditch. McNeeley got out and inspected the damage.
1581612358629-Screen-Shot-2020-02-13-at-114529-AM
A few minutes later, a sheriff arrived on the scene. The sheriff hauled McNeeley to jail, where he spent the night before being let go. But in court a week later, the county attorney, claimed that McNeeley had intended to be intimate with the woman.
Never in my life had I even entertained the thought of being intimate with a white woman, McNeeley said.
Still, he was fined $100 for "vagrancy" and placed in a cell with several Black men. That night, one of McNeeleys cellmates looked out the window and saw a group of white men approaching. Some of the younger men in the cell began crying, McNeeley said.
The mob of men, handkerchiefs covering their faces, entered the jail, opened the cell, and demanded McNeeley and one of his cellmates, 23-year-old Harold Venters, step forward.
The men told me to stand over in the corner with my face to the wall while they began working on Venters, McNeeley said.
The men castrated Venters. Then they turned to McNeeley.
Somebody put a hat over my face, and then began the worst ordeal, the worst pain, that I have ever experienced, McNeeley said.
The coffee meeting dispersed at Herschels, and I headed a few blocks down the road to a café located in an Exxon gas station. There, I encountered a group of Black men sitting together over coffee. I approached them and asked if they would talk to me about McNeeley.
Ill talk to you, but I cant give you my name, a 71-year-old man said. We have to live here.
The man knew about the castration, but hadnt personally known McNeeley. Instead he described a different case of racial violence: In 1921, he said, a white mob burned a Black 19-year-old at the stake for allegedly assaulting a white girl in Leesburg, a tiny town seven miles east of Pittsburg.
Racism isnt any better than it used to be, the man added. Its just hidden more now.
While there arent comprehensive statistics for the number of black men castrated by white mobs, experts say that white mens fear of black male sexuality lead to a constant threat of violence, including castration, from the time of slavery to the mid-twentieth century.
But this woman pleaded with McNeeley to give her a ride.
Her begging was so touching and she was so convincing that I suppose I became weak and let her ride, McNeeley said in the 1941 newspaper account.
Shortly after allowing the woman to ride with him, a tire on McNeeleys car flew off. He swerved into a ditch. McNeeley got out and inspected the damage.
1581612358629-Screen-Shot-2020-02-13-at-114529-AM
A few minutes later, a sheriff arrived on the scene. The sheriff hauled McNeeley to jail, where he spent the night before being let go. But in court a week later, the county attorney, claimed that McNeeley had intended to be intimate with the woman.
Never in my life had I even entertained the thought of being intimate with a white woman, McNeeley said.
Still, he was fined $100 for "vagrancy" and placed in a cell with several Black men. That night, one of McNeeleys cellmates looked out the window and saw a group of white men approaching. Some of the younger men in the cell began crying, McNeeley said.
The mob of men, handkerchiefs covering their faces, entered the jail, opened the cell, and demanded McNeeley and one of his cellmates, 23-year-old Harold Venters, step forward.
The men told me to stand over in the corner with my face to the wall while they began working on Venters, McNeeley said.
The men castrated Venters. Then they turned to McNeeley.
Somebody put a hat over my face, and then began the worst ordeal, the worst pain, that I have ever experienced, McNeeley said.
The coffee meeting dispersed at Herschels, and I headed a few blocks down the road to a café located in an Exxon gas station. There, I encountered a group of Black men sitting together over coffee. I approached them and asked if they would talk to me about McNeeley.
Ill talk to you, but I cant give you my name, a 71-year-old man said. We have to live here.
The man knew about the castration, but hadnt personally known McNeeley. Instead he described a different case of racial violence: In 1921, he said, a white mob burned a Black 19-year-old at the stake for allegedly assaulting a white girl in Leesburg, a tiny town seven miles east of Pittsburg.
Racism isnt any better than it used to be, the man added. Its just hidden more now.