Thank God For M.L.K.

a short story,
1,045 words
By Joe DiBuduo
Copyright 2013 Joe DiBuduo
Thank God for MLK
1,045 words
I left Chicago for warmer parts as fierce winds blew snow into mounds higher than my
head. It got a lot brighter and warmer on Highway 75 near Macon Georgia. I stuck my thumb out
for a ride. Squealing brakes and smoking tires on a highway patrol car got my attention as it
skidded to a stop. A burly cop with mirrored sunglasses exited the car, drew his gun and aimed it
at me.
Youre breaking the law Boy. No hitchhiking allowed.
Okay, Ill walk to Macon.
Get in the car, boy. He opened the back door of the car with his free hand.
I got in. He holstered his gun and drove. We passed a tree with 3 men hanging from it.
Sure glad Im white, I said. Otherwise you might just hang me from that tree.
The cop jammed on his brakes, turned and faced me over the seat. Listen boy. Dont
believe that bullshit propaganda you read in the newspapers. Those boys hanging there were
hung by their own kind, not whites.
I dont believe that.
Dont give a damn what you believe, thats the way it is.
I know how it really is, I said. To never have been really free and to have always lived
in fear because if you rolled your eyes or not when a light skinned man addressed you, you could

find yourself swinging in the breeze from a tree, with bulging eyes, a twisted mouth and your
blood dripping on the leaves if a white man thought a lesson had to be taught.
Its not like youve been brainwashed to believe. Any lynched man was claimed to be
killed by racist whites, but Im telling you, Boy, that didnt happen nearly as often as youre told
it did.
Yeah, thats what you say. Who hung those guys? I nodded toward the hanging tree.
Boy, people down here take care of their own. When one of them commits a rape or
murder in their community, they have little desire to march miles and miles to the sheriff. They
lynch the perpetrator themselves. When found dangling the lynched man becomes just another
racist hanging according to you Yankees.
Even if thats true can you imagine what its like to be black here in the South? Why is
lynching allowed at all? What happened to a fair trial?
We dont coddle criminals down here like you do up north. Justice here is fair and
swift.
So you say. If youre not white, you dont have any rights.
Thats not true. I arrested you for breaking the law. Same as I would any black man. Im
not the least bit prejudiced.
Bullshit. If I was black, Id be hanging from that tree.
The cop turned red when I said that. Told you Im not prejudiced. He shifted into drive
and drove across tall grass and pulled up beside the hanging tree.
Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. He got out, pulled his gun from his belt and
waved me out of the car.
Hands behind your back, the cop said and snapped cuffs on my wrists when I complied.
He opened the trunk and pulled out a thick rope with a hangmans noose already tied into it.
What are you doing?
He smiled. Why Boy, Im going to show you how we string em up down here.
Oh, oh, this didnt look good for me. Okay, youre scaring me. Can we quit now?
This aint no game. You come down here preaching about justice, well, Im about to
mete out some right now. He threw one end of the rope over a high branch.
Wait a minute! Im white. You cant just hang me because you feel like it.
Watch me Boy. He laughed, burped and then farted.
He was going to do it. Wait!
He glanced at me and continued taking up the slack in the rope.

Being white doesnt make us mean. Its the color black thats to blame. It has been
feared from the beginning of time and repulsion to black is often ingrained and obtained at an
early age. I know some black people have been involved with lynchings of their own kind, so
youre right. If I said anything that offended you, you must have misconstrued what I said.
Misconstrued my ass. Im going to stretch your neck,
He threw the noose around my neck and tied the other end around the bumper of his car. I
struggled to get free. He grabbed his pistol by the barrel and smashed it onto my head. Next thing
I knew a breeze rocked me back and forth while I swung from a branch just below one with a
man hanging from it.
He stood ten feet below me with lit up eyes and a smiling face. Youre about to become
part of the crop put here for crows to pluck, and for the sun to rot while youre hanging on this
tree with bloody leaves.
My life was about to end. I prayed for another chance and saw headlights bouncing
across the field. Another police car. They must be coming to join the hanging party. It screeched
to a halt. Two cops jumped out. One jumped into the car my rope was attached to and lowered
me to the ground. The other cop ran over and loosened the noose. He turned to the cop that had
hung me and said, Dont you know, MLK died to change this?
Jeez chief, I was just throwing a scare into the boy, the hanging cop said. Any fool can
see those men hanging are nothing but Halloween dummies.
I looked again and sure enough the hanging men I saw were nothing but dummies, mens
clothing filled with straw. I want to press charges for attempted murder, I shouted.
The cop in charge looked at me with eyes full of hate. Now I see why I found you
hanging from a tree.
I knew I should have kept my mouth shut when he said, Hang him back up. MLK or
anybody else will never know he was here.
I heard the motor rev before I felt the rope yank me off my feet.

If you enjoyed this story please consider making a small donation through Pay Pal to the
author to keep the free stories coming. For more free stories and to see what the author is writing,
go to http://joedibuduo.com/
Joes Pay Pal account is joe1025@hotmail.com
Thank you for any donation, be it a nickel, dime, quarter, dollar, or more.