1968

Excellence Award in the 'Spread The Word 2017' competition

A car rumbled to a stop underneath the green willow tree, which was shrouded by a low, wet fog. Five men stepped out and hurried around to the trunk. A muffled cry could be heard when one of them opened it, and then they assisted each other in pulling out another man. He struggled, but there were five of them and only one of him. His ebony skin blended into the darkness, but contrasted against the ivory tones of the five men dragging him towards the trunk of the tree.
Three of the whites held the black man against the tree trunk, and the other two ran back to the car. They returned with a thickset rope, and they quickly slung it over one of the lower hanging branches.
Phrases such as; “Dirty ape!” and, “Damn nigga!” rang out through the paddock, drowning out the black man’s cries for help.
Although he cried for help, he knew no one would come; people didn’t help his kind, not in this time or this place. One of the men who were attaching the rope to the ground a few feet from the trunk of the tree was a police officer.
There was no one to help the black man anymore.
One of the white men began to tie the other end of the rope, and soon the black man could see that it was now in the shape of a noose.
“You gonna hang yourself, ghetto monkey, or do you need us to do it for you?” One of the other men jeered. The black man did not give him the pleasure of responding verbally; instead, he spat at his feet. There was an uproar from the other four men, and soon the black man had been clocked in the face. While he was still disorientated, they dragged him forwards and looped the noose over his neck. The black man began to struggle even more furiously than he had before, but he could not stop the men from tightening the noose up against his neck, nor could he stop them from stepping back and pulling the other end of the rope.
He felt himself go up, and he felt the rope burning against his neck and crushing his windpipe.
His last thoughts were of his family - his teenage son, his wife, the second little boy they were expecting in a few months. He thought of them, and how this would affect them.
He was angry that his son, innocent, would have to bear the brunt of the racism destroying their country.

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