The Emmett Till Alerts system — named in honor of the 14-year-old Black teen who was murdered in 1955, after a White woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, claimed Till whistled at her — is modeled after the Amber Alert system.
“We have to take hate crimes and terrorist threats seriously,” Carl Snowden of the Caucus of African American Leaders said during the news conference.
When an act of racial violence is reported, Snowden says a team will sort through the details and determine if an alert should be sent out to subscribers to the service. The idea is to allow members in a local community where an act of racial violence or hatred occurs to be able to take appropriate actions to protect themselves and their family.
The alerts are by invite only for now, but Snowden said he hopes others will be able to sign up for the service after a trial period.
“We’re just beginning. We’re going to see how the system works…I suspect what you’ll find is this is going to be replicated nationally very, very quickly,” he said.
The first alert was sent Monday to users, notifying them that the system was officially working. The alert system has low, medium and high threat levels, with the highest-level meaning there is a greater likelihood of violence or death. The alerts will be sent to 167 Black elected leaders, national civil rights organizations, clergy, and other community leaders. The alert system is privately funded, Snowden said, and will cost about $6,000 to operate annually.
During the launch announcement, Snowden said the development of the alert system comes after recent instances of racial hate incidents being reported in Maryland.
“We see so many incidents of history repeat itself. We have to be proactive,” Snowden said.
Snowden and others say the system is the first of its kind in the country.
The TJC is an organization dedicated to rooting out racial injustices amongst other issues of importance to the Black community such as voting rights, criminal justice reform and police brutality.
Civil rights workers James Chaney, 21, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24, in went missing on June 21, 1964 in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and their bodies were found six weeks later on August 4.
Source : CNN