The Tracks of His Tears

A Miscarriage of Justice

The news hit her in the face like an old frying pan. She did not know what to do when her cousin gave the particulars surrounding her brothers death. A brother she never set eyes on. A brother her father deliberately did not tell her about. After days and days of reading upon his trial, she grew angry about the truth, he was hanged for a crime he did not commit! Her great annoyance heightened when evidence of his innocence fell into her lap with one telephone call. An email she received was more proof that Herman Perry Dennis Jr. was framed for the murder of Ruth Farnsworth. She remembered her father and his struggle with alcoholism. She also remembered his intelligence and how people marveled at it, yet she never understood why it was impossible for him to go a day without drinking. After she listened to her cousin describe his ghastly nightmare, she finally understood. Herman P. Dennis Jr. was an upright young man, who appreciated his Blackness and was proud of it. He was very intelligent and joining the Air Force in the 1940s was proof of it. In his walk during his enlistment, he tackled with racism. He spoke and wrote about it. The beautiful young lady was killed, but not by the hands of Herman P. Dennis Jr.. Black men, by definition of Whites in those days, desired White women so much, until they would go to any length to have one, so with rape came a lynching. It did not matter if the person was guilty, someone had to pay. The town of Rosewood Florida came to mind when she began writing about her brother.