Hilton Worldwide is rooted in Virginia, cradle of U.S. slavery, and so is the word lynching
$40 bn Hotel chain all-white bosses do not feel the need to say sorry for the picture of Confederate KKK leaders from Mississippi, who in white shrouds had cleansed the South of the "Negro menace."
Christopher Nassetta, president & CEO of Hilton Worldwide (center) with Hilton family members, including two close friends of former President Donald Trump, Richard and Kathy Hilton and their daughters, Paris and Nicholai Rothschild.— Picture courtesy Getty Images.
Who is more sleazy? The Trumps, Donald and Melania, with the members of now ex-rated Hilton family. Trump is said to have made inappropriate comments about Paris Hilton when she was just 12.—Picture courtesy Getty Images.
Let’s call their names for today, the eleventh day of October.
Freddie Moore. He was lynched Labadieville, La., on Oct. 11, 1933.
David Bunn. He was handcuffed and was trying to flee from a white lynch mob when he was shot dead by the sheriff in Dallas, Oct. 11, 1933, according to the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI).
Andrew Chapwan. He was lynched, somewhere in Ga., on Oct. 11, 1911.
A.B. Richardson and Benjamin Woods. They were lynched in Caruthersville, Mo., on Oct. 11, 1911.
Henry White. He was lynched in Younker, Ga., on Oct. 11, 1908.
Joseph Davis and Frank Davis. They were lynched in Lula, Miss., Oct. 11, 1908.
William Henderson. He was lynched in Jackson, Miss., on Oct. 11, 1895.
Cesar Sullivan, murdered, Newmanville, Fla. on Oct. 11, 1868.
Then there were countless unnamed victims: two unidentified blacks were lynched in Clarksdale and three unidentified blacks were lynched in Tunica, Miss., on Oct. 11, 1915. In 1892, as many as 15 unidentified blacks were murdered in Georgia, town unknown.
It was not simply individual lynchings. A slow motion genocide was taking place, that saw massacres of black folks in the Deep South. In Louisiana in October 1868, as many as 200 unidentified blacks were massacred in St. Landry Parish, 162 unidentified blacks were murdered in Bossier Parish, 42 in Caddo Parish, and 30 unidentified blacks were massacred in Shreveport. Additionally, 31 unidentified blacks were murdered in Georgia in Oct. 1868.
Lest we forget, these folks were lynched on Oct. 10, 1908: Dee Dawson, William Fuller and Frank Johnson were lynched in Hickory, Miss., while Wylie McNeely lynched Leesburg, Texas. But this is not a complete list.
Building upon the work previously done by the Tuskegee Institute, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) researchers documented 4075 racial terror lynchings of African Americans in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia between 1877 and 1950—at least 800 more lynchings of Black people in these states than previously reported.
In 2017, EJI supplemented this research by documenting racial terror lynchings in other states, and found these acts of violence were most common in eight states: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.
In the southern states, Mississippi was one of the worst.
The Washington Post in a report cited Jill Collen Jefferson, a lawyer and founder of Julian, that the state of Mississippi lynchings have not stopped to this day. The bottom line is that lynching is still a tool of racist attack against black folks and it was naive to think the practice died with the ending of Jim Crow.
Hilton has mysteriously kept quiet about the KKK despite being called out by international human rights defender Peter Tatchell.
And separately, by the Peter Tatchell Foundation the legendary London-based fighter operates.
A sister organization of the Hilton Worldwide, which is led by progeny the founder of the first international global hotel chain, Conrad N. Hilton, dissociated itself from the hotel’s love for KKK. A spokesperson for the foundation, Julia Friedman, informed this correspondent:
Though Friedman suggested one of the richest U.S. families of the last century have high values, the public outbursts with racial and sexual epithets by two of the younger members, Paris —she even lied she voted for Donald Trump, a close friend of her parents in the 2020 elections— and Conrad Hilton III, and a book on the family reveals the sleazier side of the ex-rated family.
Like the Hilton Worldwide, top management of the Vanguard Group and Los Angeles-based Capital Group, and Boston-based Fidelity now own the major stakes worths billions of dollars in hotel chain, are also mostly white. They too have not responded to a query about the KKK picture.
Though it may not be obvious in local market situations, but when it comes to gathering of the rich at banquets at the Kennedy Center or Newseum, the guests are mostly white.
If this is the case, how come Hilton Worldwide which has very college-educated folks, not some country boys from the boondocks of Virginia— the cradle of slavery in the U.S.—, as its top executives, did not know it was wrong to glorify the leaders of the KKK who played the vanguard role in the crimes against humanity in the Deep South?
Just like these days Americans celebrate the bombing of brown people in distant lands such as Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya— even under half black president Obama— turning their TVs munching on popcorns, burgers, fries and drinks, to watch hapless brown Muslim women and children being killed by American B-52 bombers, the lynchings were carried out with great fanfare. White women and children, joined the men to enjoy the spectacle to the hilt— hanging, and burning the black victim and competing with each for the body parts of the black victims to keep as souvenirs. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, public spectacle lynchings perpetuated the belief that Africans were subhuman—a myth that had been used to justify centuries of enslavement, and now fueled and purportedly justified terrorism aimed at newly-emancipated African American communities.13
Mississippi state senators Carroll Kendrick, District 37 and president pro tempura of the senate; Francis Marion Johnson, District 1; James M. Coen, District 11; Calvin B. Vance, District 33; and Calvin W. Huff were all staring spookily at this writer from the walls of Hilton’s The Tutwiler on the eighth floor, outside the breakfast area, early morning Sept. 13, 2023. The picture is from any day between May 16 to 18, 1916 when the Confederate veterans descended in thousands on Bombingham, so named because of the bombings carried out by the KKK during the civil rights movement. Just four days earlier Subday May 14, 1916 the Montgomery Advertiser on its front page hailed these bloodthirsty villains of history for ridding the south of the “Negro menace” while lamenting the blacks will always be a problem in their state. I am still livid as no hotel in the entire world should ever terrorize and traumatize its guests like Hilton terrorized and traumatized me. Their refusal to issue a public apology, despite numerous emails, adds to my emotional wound.
Senator Huff hometown Centreville was shared by two counties Amite and Wilkinson— Amite had 14 and Wilkinson nine recorded lynchings, according to the EJI; Senator Kendrick’s Copiah County had 10 recorded lynchings; Senator Johnson’s Jackson County had eight lynchings, Senator Vance’s Panola County saw four lynchings; and Senator Coen’s Harrison county saw 10 lynchings.
Some of the most infamous cases like the killing of Emmett Till, 14, and the enforced disappearance and execution of James Chaney and two young Jewish New Yorkers, Andy Goodman and Michael Schwerner all took place in Mississippi.
But the senseless killing of blacks in Mississippi was not just a thing of May 1916. A black man walking on the road might get killed even today in racist pockets of the Deep South. Federal forces could not put their feet in some towns of the Deep South until 1961. That is what makes the KKK picture at the Hilton even more barbaric.
Other than the KKK mass murderers from Mississippi, the Hilton picture also showed white supremacist killer Gen Bennett H. Young, from Louisville Kentucky. As a 21-year-old Young on Oct 19, 1864 he had terrorized the people in the small town of St. Albans, close to the borders with Canada, killing one, wounding another and taking off with millions of dollars in today’s currency. Standing on the steps of the American House hotel in St. Albans, a revolver in his hand, as head of the Vermont Yankee Scare Party, according to local historian and journalist Mark Bushnell Young yelled, “This city is now in the possession of the Confederate States of America.”
It is not that the Hilton Worldwide leaders don’t know. The problem is they don’t care. Otherwise, they would not have delayed a public apology over the KKK picture, which was removed after this writer’s protest 9/18/2023.
The main issue is for these white Virginian execs of Hilton Worldwide, the Confederates and the KKK were a part of Virginia's “rich history.” It is possible the Hilton leadership are themselves progeny of the slave owners and Confederate and KKK leaders of yore. When U.S. Senator from Tennessee, Albert Gore Sr., the father of such a great American like Al Gore voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act that helped end racial inequality somewhat, what else can one expect from white America.
Strangely enough, the word lynching— that is a mob taking the law in their own hands to deliver swift justice extrajudicially—, itself has its roots in Virginia as it was derived from the name of a person. They also still have a city called Lynchburg and I have personally experienced they are the most racist in the metropolitan DMV (District of Columbia-Maryland-Virginia) region.
Recently, much to the chagrin of other board members, Nassetta was seen with a sleazy member of the Hilton family, Paris Hilton, who gained infamy for calling black men as “gross.”
The Confederate army, whose loser veterans launched the KKK to subjugate the blacks by terror after the end of slavery, were headquartered in Richmond. The state even today has nearly four dozen hate groups, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The all-white executive team of Hilton Worldwide is headed by Arlington-born Christopher Nassetta, who has given generously to the campaign of Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin, whose first executive order was to ban critical race theory in schools. This theory basically exposes the root of systemic racism in the U.S.
In contrast to Nassetta and Youngkin, as a battle of ideology rages across America, Blacks, Jews, progressives and Catholics all support the teaching of black history. In fact, just 11 minutes short walk from the Tutwiler, Supreme Court Associate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson made an impassioned appeal that America must know about its history.
Judge Ketanji Jackson speaking at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, 9/15/2023.
Corruption of the political setup where campaign contributions make or break a candidate’s political career is an impediment in addressing racism. The board of directors of Hilton Worldwide is chaired by Jonathan Gray, who is president of the Blackstone Group— the eighth biggest campaign contributor in the country.
Nassetta also gives generous campaign contributions to among others, Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer, Amy Klobuchar and Hakim Jeffries. His wife Paige has given to Republicans Barbara Comstock, and Roy Blunt and like her hubby, to U.S. Senator from Maryland Chris Van Hollen. So none is calling out Hilton over the KKK pictures.
It is quite possible the KKK terrorist picture was hand-selected by Nassetta. In the eyes of BLM activists in DC, this won’t surprise them because people like Youngkin and Nassetta are basically buttoned-up klansmen.
What surprises observers is that the board of Hilton Worldwide is chaired by Jonathan Gray. He is reported to be Jewish, and Jews and blacks have always been allies in their fight against racism and bigotry.
A question sent to the Blackstone group about Gray role at Hilton Worldwide and the mutual connection between the two entities, remained unanswered till the filing of this report.
Hilton hotel chain was launched by Conrad N. Hilton, who was a golfing buddy of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a terrible record on civil rights. His public reaction to the ending of school segregation showed he was displeased by the court decision.
Racism in America can only be addressed by whites. According to history.com specific figure of 618,222 is often cited, with 360,222 Union deaths and 258,000 Confederate deaths. However, once the war was over the majority of whites looked the other way. They became boys in blue and grey as if the dangerous issue of systemic racism was a thing of the past.
Such familial bonding between the boys of the two colors as if they were two teams of a high school soccer game wreaks havoc on people of color. (In my case I see that majority of whites, who say they are anti racists are silent, as the Serenity Club in Alexandria denies me membership because I protested against the casual use of the N-word there.)
Like to help?
Please write to:
Jonathan Gray, chair of the Hilton Worldwide board of directors; Christopher Nassetta, president and CEO, Hilton Worldwide; and Mark Weinstein, SVP & Chief Marketing Officer.
Their email addresses are:
Jonathan.Gray@hilton.com
Christopher.Nassetta@hilton.com
Mark.Weinstein@hilton.com
Please forward copy of your email to:
ahmar_scribe@yahoo.com
@unreportedn