I don’t remember if I called or Facebook messaged my friend Kelly. One morning, a few weeks ago, I woke up with the certainty that we would have to organize an event, an action, SOMETHING when Darren Wilson’s non-indictment was announced. There was no question in my mind that it would be a non-indictment (for reasons that I write about all the time on this blog).

I had an idea but it was inchoate. I needed help to actualize it. Kelly is one of the founders of the Chicago Light Brigade. She teaches direct action strategy and is well-versed in creating art for protest. Art making is definitely not my strength so I reached out for help. My idea was to create something that could symbolize the 89 people who have been killed by Chicago Police in the last 5 years. I knew that I wanted to incorporate coffins somehow. Kelly didn’t hesitate to help and came up with the idea to create a tree where the coffins would hang. At its base, she (along with volunteers) would recreate the teddy bear and candle memorial that Mike Brown’s supporters made in Ferguson.

photo by Kelly Hayes

The symbolism of coffins hanging from a tree and coffins hanging by a string is brutal testimony to racist violence in the U.S. It was a fitting symbol to incorporate in our action.

“Return the tree, the moon, the naked man
Hanging from the indifferent branch
Return blood to his brain, breath to his heart
Reunite the neck with the bridge of his body
Untie the knot, undo the noose
Return the kicking feet to ground
Unwhisper the word jesus” – Reverse: A Lynching by Ansel Elkins

photo by Sarah Jane Rhee

I don’t know how many people took the time to look at the tree at Monday’s action. I hope that some people did and that they saw the connections we were making between the rope and the badge. I hope that they understood the historical legacy that we were bringing into our present.

“The bloodhounds look like sad old judges
In a strange court. They point their noses
At the Negro jerking in the right noose;
His feet spread crow-like above these
Honorable men who laugh as he chokes.” – Nice Day for a Lynching by Kenneth Patchen

photo by Kelly Hayes

89 coffins plus one for Mike Brown… 89 souls stolen… I hope they saw, I hope you see. I hope you act…

“So quietly they stole upon their prey
And dragged him out to death, so without flaw
Their black design, that they to whom the law
Gave him in keeping, in the broad, bright day,
Were not aware when he was snatched away;
And when the people, with a shrinking awe,
The horror of that mangled body saw,
“By unknown hands!” was all they could say.” – “So Quietly” by Leslie Pinckney Hill

photo by Sarah Jane Rhee

“The
faces of men
Laughing white
Faces of men
Dead in the night
sorrow night
and a
sorrow night” – Lynchsong by Lorraine Hansberry

photo by Sarah Jane Rhee

“Day dawned, and soon the mixed crowds came to view
The ghastly body swaying in the sun:
The women thronged to look, but never a one
Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue;
And little lads, lynchers that were to be,
Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.” – The Lynching by Claude McKay

photo by Sarah Jane Rhee

“Reenter the night through its door of mercy” – Ansel Elkins

photo by Sarah Jane Rhee